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Dragon · King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

EXERCISE 1 OF 94
Groove H -- Part H (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 263 BARS COVERED
0 / 94 PASSED · 42 BARS LIT · IN THE PART H
PART H
PART U
PART AA
OUTRO 2
16 groovesS17HAAUF+11Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 18
FILL · 20
LAND · 20
RUN · 5
JOIN · 15
LINK · 6
SECTION · 9
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Dragon on drums

263 bars of 4/4 at 145 BPM, about 9:41 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

71 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
145 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
263
LENGTH
9:41
DIFFICULTY
71/100

snare through bars 1-9, ride through bars 10-17, hi-hat through bars 18-25, toms through bars 26-73, hi-hat through bars 74-77 and snare through bars 78-81, and 16 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 26-32, 34-40 and 42-48, and 3 more places -- 21.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    26             27
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e
CC |x-------------|--------------|
SD |--x---x---x---|x---x---x---x-|
FT |--x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x---x-x-x-|
BD |xxxxxxxxxxxxxx|xxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
Dragon -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

20 fills to learn, played 47 times: bars 1, 9, 13, 25, 33, 41 and 41 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 73 exercises -- the grooves, the fills, and the joins between sections, which is where players actually come off -- and puts them in the order a teacher would. Each one opens on a reduction you can already play and adds the notes back a rung at a time, with a tempo to reach and a gate to pass before the next.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AA -- 3 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- F -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  4. Through Part B -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  5. Through Part B and Part D -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Through Part B and Part D -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  7. Bars 6-29 -- 7 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  8. Through Part H and Part F -- 6 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  9. and 15 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Dragon?

145 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. The room plays it at any tempo from a quarter of that up to the written one, against the record where the record can follow.

Is Dragon hard to play on drums?

71 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 69 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

263 bars, about 9:41 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 73 exercises over 23 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in Dragon?

20 fills to learn, played 47 times: bars 1, 9, 13, 25, 33, 41 and 41 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 263 BARS ANALYSED