Friends Will Be Friends · Queen

75 bars, 3:58, at 75 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

RockPopUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
75
LENGTH
3:58
DIFFICULTY
46/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 64% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-14, 16 and 19-21, and 7 more places -- 64% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 75 BPM
FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS · BAR 1
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 17, 18, 36, 37, 56 and 70.

LOOP · 75 BPM
BARS 17-18 · LANDS ON BAR 19 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 56 · LANDS ON BAR 57 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

75 bars across 3 sections: 66 keep time and 6 are fills. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 19-35.

CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
2 groovesAGFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Friends Will Be Friends?

75 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Friends Will Be Friends hard to play on drums?

46 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 28 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

75 bars, about 3:58 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 12 exercises over 4 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Friends Will Be Friends?

2 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 17, 18, 36, 37, 56 and 70.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 75 BARS ANALYSED
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