ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Funeral Thirst on drums

129 bars of 4/4 at 125 BPM, about 4:08 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

97 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO: 125 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 129
LENGTH: 4:08
DIFFICULTY: 97/100

ride through bars 1-4, hi-hat through bars 5-12, ride through bars 13-20, hi-hat through bars 21-28, ride through bars 29-43 and hi-hat through bars 44-91, and 2 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 13-15, 17-19 and 29-31, and 3 more places -- 14.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    13                                               14
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|x-----------------------------------x-----------|
RD |------x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--|------x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--------------|
HH |------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------o-----|
SD |x-----x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--|x-----x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x-----x-----|
BD |x-----x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--|x-----x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--xx-x--xx-|

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

The fills

10 fills to learn, played 21 times: bars 16, 20, 32, 36, 40, 44 and 15 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 45 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 -- C -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
Through Part A and Part B -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part B and Part C -- 4 exercises, about 20 minutes.
Through Part G -- 4 exercises, about 32 minutes.
Through Part C and Part G -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part G and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 17 minutes.
and 9 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Funeral Thirst?

125 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 Funeral Thirst hard to play on drums?

97 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 82 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

129 bars, about 4:08 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 45 exercises over 17 sittings, about 25 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 Funeral Thirst?

10 fills to learn, played 21 times: bars 16, 20, 32, 36, 40, 44 and 15 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 129 BARS ANALYSED