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Estranged · Guns N' Roses

EXERCISE 1 OF 88
Groove D -- Part D (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 209 BARS COVERED
0 / 88 PASSED · 24 BARS LIT · IN THE PART D
PART D
PART R
PART D
CHORUS 2
PART AB
PART AC
PART R
CHORUS 3
PART AR
12 groovesBDACRO+7Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 19
LAND · 19
RUN · 1
JOIN · 17
LINK · 11
SECTION · 11
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Estranged on drums

209 bars of 4/4 at a walking 88 BPM, 9:28 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

53 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
88 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
209
LENGTH
9:28
DIFFICULTY
53/100

ride through bars 2-9, hi-hat through bars 10-25, ride through bars 26-27, toms through bars 28-31, snare through bars 32-35 and ride through bars 36-50, and 19 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 10-16, 18-24 and 72-74, and 1 more place -- 11.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    12               13
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|o-o-o-o-o-o-o---|
SD |----x-------x---|----x-------x-xx|
BD |x------xx-x---x-|x------xx-x-----|
Estranged -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

19 fills to learn, played 64 times: bars 9, 13, 17, 25, 26, 27 and 58 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 68 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 -- D -- 5 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AB -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- AC -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  4. Through Part D and Part O -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  5. Through Part D and Part O -- 5 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  6. Through Part O and Part R -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Bars 44-72 -- 8 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  8. Through Part D and the Chorus 2 -- 9 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 8 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Estranged?

88 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 Estranged hard to play on drums?

53 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 39 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

209 bars, about 9:28 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 68 exercises over 16 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 Estranged?

19 fills to learn, played 64 times: bars 9, 13, 17, 25, 26, 27 and 58 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 209 BARS ANALYSED