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eight of swords · archive: something

EXERCISE 1 OF 78
Groove Q -- Part Q (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 119 BARS COVERED
0 / 78 PASSED · 6 BARS LIT · IN THE PART J, PART Q
PART J
PART Q
PART W
CHORUS
PART AU
PART S9
PART AS
PART AU
PART BM
CHORUS 2
14 groovesADAUWJE+9Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 13
FILL · 16
LAND · 16
RUN · 2
JOIN · 15
LINK · 2
SECTION · 13
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play eight of swords on drums

117 bars of 4/4 at 111 BPM, about 4:18 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
111 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
117
LENGTH
4:18
DIFFICULTY
68/100

snare through bars 1-5, ride through bars 6-11, snare through bars 12-13, hi-hat through bars 14-16, snare through bars 17-33 and hi-hat through bars 34-48, and 16 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 18, 20 and 22-25 -- 5.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    22                                                               23
    1...............2...............3...............4............... 1...............2...............3...............4...............
CC |x---------------------------------------------------------------|x-------------------------------x-------------------------------|
SD |----------------------------------------------------------------|X---------------------------------------------------------------|
BD |x---x---------------------------x---x---x---x---x---x-----------|x---x-----------x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|
eight of swords -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

16 fills to learn, played 29 times: bars 4, 11, 14, 15, 16, 29 and 23 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 -- Q, E -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AB -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Through Part B and Part E -- 5 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  4. Through Part J -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  5. Through Part E and Part J -- 4 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  6. Through Part J and Part Q -- 2 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  7. Bars 19-27 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Through Part W -- 5 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  9. and 12 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is eight of swords?

111 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 eight of swords hard to play on drums?

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 42 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

117 bars, about 4:18 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 61 exercises over 20 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

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

How many fills are in eight of swords?

16 fills to learn, played 29 times: bars 4, 11, 14, 15, 16, 29 and 23 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 117 BARS ANALYSED