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Dragonfly · Atomship

EXERCISE 6 OF 77
Groove A -- Part A (a two-bar phrase)
61 / 177 BARS COVERED
0 / 77 PASSED · 6 BARS LIT · IN THE PART A
PART A
PART F
CHORUS
PART F
CHORUS 3
PART X
PART AC
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
13 groovesIFACXAI+8Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 14
FILL · 15
LAND · 15
RUN · 2
JOIN · 13
LINK · 7
SECTION · 10
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Dragonfly on drums

177 bars of 4/4 at 140 BPM, about 4:34 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
140 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
177
LENGTH
4:34
DIFFICULTY
70/100

toms through bars 1-8, snare through bars 9-24, hi-hat through bars 25-40, ride through bars 41-44, snare through bars 45-60 and hi-hat through bars 61-89, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 25-26, 29-30 and 33-34, and 9 more places -- 14.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    25                                               26
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
HH |------------o-----------o-----------o-----------|o-----------o-----------o-----------o-----------|
SD |------------------------x-----------------------|------------------------x-----g-g-g-g-----------|
BD |x-----------------x-----------x-----x-----------|------x-----------x-----------------x-----x-----|
Dragonfly -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 8, 15, 16, 23, 24, 28 and 26 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 61 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 -- I -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- F, X -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Through Part A -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes. Open above.
  4. Through Part A and Part F -- 6 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  5. Bars 15-36 -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Bars 39-45 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Bars 41-69 -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  8. Bars 72-93 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 10 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Dragonfly?

140 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Dragonfly hard to play on drums?

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 58 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

177 bars, about 4:34 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 61 exercises over 18 sittings, about 26 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 Dragonfly?

15 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 8, 15, 16, 23, 24, 28 and 26 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 177 BARS ANALYSED