ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Enigma on drums

138 bars of 4/4 at 115 BPM, about 4:47 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO: 115 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 138
LENGTH: 4:47
DIFFICULTY: 71/100

hi-hat through bar 1, snare through bars 2-4, hi-hat through bars 5-24, snare through bars 25-28, hi-hat through bars 29-32 and snare through bars 33-41, and 11 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 9-16, 21 and 23, and 5 more places -- 16.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    9                                                10
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
HH |------------o-----------o-----------o-----------|o-----------o-----------o-----------o-----------|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x-----x-x-x-------x-----x-x-x-x-----------------|x-----x-------x-x-x-x-x-x-----------------------|

Enigma -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

17 fills to learn, played 37 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 20 and 31 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- G, O -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part O -- 4 exercises, about 15 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- AW -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
Through Part D -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part D and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
Through Part D and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 20 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 -- 2 exercises, about 26 minutes.
and 14 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Enigma?

115 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 Enigma hard to play on drums?

71 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 55 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

138 bars, about 4:47 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 61 exercises over 22 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Enigma?

17 fills to learn, played 37 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 20 and 31 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 138 BARS ANALYSED