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Escape (The Pina Colada Song) · Rupert Holmes

EXERCISE 1 OF 36
Groove K -- Chorus
0 / 81 BARS COVERED
0 / 36 PASSED · 5 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2, OUTRO 2
PART F
PART G
CHORUS
PART T
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesKTGFFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 6
FILL · 9
LAND · 9
RUN · 1
JOIN · 4
LINK · 2
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Escape (The Pina Colada Song) on drums

81 bars, 4:38, at 70 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

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

TEMPO
70 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
81
LENGTH
4:38
DIFFICULTY
75/100

toms through bar 1 and hi-hat through bars 2-81.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 14, 34 and 40, and 2 more places -- 6.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    40
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|
HH |--xoxxxxxxxxx-x-|
SD |----x-g-----x---|
BD |x--x----x-xx---x|
Escape (The Pina Colada Song) -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

9 fills to learn, played 56 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 50 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 26 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 -- K -- 4 exercises, about 34 minutes. Open above.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- T -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  4. Through Part F -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Bars 1-14 -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus and Part T -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  7. Through Part T and the Chorus 2 -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  8. Bars 44-58 -- 4 exercises, about 36 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Escape (The Pina Colada Song)?

70 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Escape (The Pina Colada Song) hard to play on drums?

75 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 59 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

81 bars, about 4:38 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 26 exercises over 11 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Escape (The Pina Colada Song)?

9 fills to learn, played 56 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 50 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 81 BARS ANALYSED