ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Freak on drums

96 bars of 4/4 at 110 BPM, about 3:29 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO: 110 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 96
LENGTH: 3:29
DIFFICULTY: 69/100

silence through bars 1-3, snare through bars 4-8, hi-hat through bars 9-12, kick and crashes through bars 13-16, hi-hat through bars 17-24 and toms through bars 25-26, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 17-23 and 43-49 -- 15.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    17                               18
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
HH |----o---o---o---o---o---o---o---|o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---|
SD |--------x---------------x-------|--------x---------------x-------|
BD |x---------------x-x-x---x-x-x---|x---------------x---xxxxx-x-x-x-|

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

The fills

9 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 12, 16, 24, 25, 26, 30 and 9 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 38 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 -- H -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes. Open above.
The grooves the song is built on -- C -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part C and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part C -- 6 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Bars 29-43 -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part F and the Chorus 2 -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part Z -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
and 3 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Freak?

110 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 Freak hard to play on drums?

69 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 66 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

96 bars, about 3:29 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 11 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Freak?

9 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 12, 16, 24, 25, 26, 30 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 96 BARS ANALYSED