ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Follower on drums

111 bars of 4/4 at a walking 95 BPM, 4:38 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO: 95 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 111
LENGTH: 4:38
DIFFICULTY: 75/100

silence through bars 1-4, hi-hat through bars 5-29, snare through bars 30-37, hi-hat through bars 38-53, ride through bars 54-58 and toms through bars 59-60, and 5 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 5-6, 9-10 and 13-14, and 10 more places -- 24.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    5                                                      6
    1...........2...........3...........4...........5..... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------------|------------------------------x-----x-----------|
HH |------x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----------------------|
SD |------------x-----------------------------x--------gg-|------x--------------x--------x-----x-----------|
T1 |------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------x--------|
T2 |------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------x--x--|
BD |x-----x--------x--------------x-----------------------|x--------x--------------x--x--------------------|

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

The fills

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 29, 60, 70 and 94.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 27 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 -- D, J -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part G and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part M -- 4 exercises, about 34 minutes.
Through Part M and the Chorus 2 -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and Part R -- 5 exercises, about 34 minutes.
Bars 77-99 -- 7 exercises, about 32 minutes.
The whole song -- 1 exercise, about 10 minutes.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Follower?

95 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 Follower hard to play on drums?

75 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 61 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

111 bars, about 4:38 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 27 exercises over 8 sittings, about 28 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 Follower?

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 29, 60, 70 and 94.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 111 BARS ANALYSED