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Free Fallin' · Tom Petty

EXERCISE 1 OF 20
Groove C -- Chorus
0 / 90 BARS COVERED
0 / 20 PASSED · 65 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, OUTRO 2
PART A
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
3 groovesCAFFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 3
FILL · 4
LAND · 4
JOIN · 3
LINK · 3
SECTION · 2
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Free Fallin' on drums

90 bars of 4/4 at a walking 84 BPM, 4:17 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

TEMPO
84 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
90
LENGTH
4:17
DIFFICULTY
44/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-12, hi-hat through bars 13-54, snare through bars 55-62 and hi-hat through bars 63-90.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 13-21, 23-37 and 39-54, and 4 more places -- 72.2% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    14
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-----x---------|
Free Fallin' -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 12, 22, 38, 70, 78 and 86.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 15 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 -- C -- 7 exercises, about 34 minutes. Open above.
  2. Through the Chorus and the Outro -- 7 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  3. The whole song -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Free Fallin'?

84 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 Free Fallin' hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 22 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

90 bars, about 4:17 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 15 exercises over 3 sittings, about 32 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid 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 Free Fallin'?

4 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 12, 22, 38, 70, 78 and 86.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 90 BARS ANALYSED