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Futile · Porcupine Tree

EXERCISE 27 OF 46
Run M2 · Chorus 2 (bars 85-108)
142 / 172 BARS COVERED
0 / 46 PASSED · 24 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS 2
PART F
PART J
CHORUS
PART Q
CHORUS 2
PART Q
CHORUS 3
11 groovesMQFJB+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 2
JOIN · 10
LINK · 2
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Futile on drums

172 bars of 4/4 at 112 BPM, about 6:02 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

63 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
112 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
172
LENGTH
6:02
DIFFICULTY
63/100

hi-hat through bars 3-5, snare through bars 6-8, ride through bars 9-24, hi-hat through bars 25-48, ride through bars 49-60 and hi-hat through bars 61-84, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 61-83 and 109-123 -- 22.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    62
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |g---g---g---g---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x--x----xx-x----|
HF |--x---x---x---x-|
Futile -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 13 times: bars 6, 7, 8, 12, 20, 84 and 7 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.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- Q -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- N (a two-bar phrase), F -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  3. Through Part B -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Through Part B and Part F -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through Part F and Part J -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Bars 40-49 -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Bars 52-85 -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Bars 85-153 -- 9 exercises, about 32 minutes. Open above.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Futile?

112 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 Futile hard to play on drums?

63 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 47 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

172 bars, about 6:02 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 11 sittings, about 26 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 Futile?

7 fills to learn, played 13 times: bars 6, 7, 8, 12, 20, 84 and 7 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 172 BARS ANALYSED