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First Date · Blink 182

EXERCISE 6 OF 40
Groove A (a two-bar phrase)
63 / 131 BARS COVERED
0 / 40 PASSED · 11 BARS LIT · IN THE PART C, PART M, OUTRO
PART C
PART K
PART M
CHORUS
PART C
PART K
PART M
CHORUS 2
PART R
PART S
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesOCMKS+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 10
FILL · 4
LAND · 4
RUN · 2
JOIN · 8
LINK · 6
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play First Date on drums

131 bars at 188 BPM -- fast, and 2:47 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
188 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
131
LENGTH
2:47
DIFFICULTY
58/100

hi-hat through bars 1-2, ride through bars 3-10, hi-hat through bars 11-26, toms through bars 27-34, snare through bars 35-42 and ride through bars 43-50, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 35-37, 39-41 and 49, and 6 more places -- 19.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    35
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---x---x---x---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-x-----x-x-----|
First Date -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 13 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 35 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 -- O -- 3 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- K, M -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Through Part C -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes. Open above.
  4. Through Part C -- 5 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  5. Through Part C -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  6. Through Part C and Part K -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Bars 23-38 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Bars 39-88 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is First Date?

188 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is First Date hard to play on drums?

58 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 34 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

131 bars, about 2:47 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 35 exercises over 11 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 First Date?

4 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 13 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 131 BARS ANALYSED