← SONGS

Ghost Riders In The Sky · Johnny Cash

EXERCISE 1 OF 15
Groove E -- Outro
0 / 94 BARS COVERED
0 / 15 PASSED · 33 BARS LIT · IN THE OUTRO
PART B
PART D
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesEDBHS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 4
RUN · 1
JOIN · 3
LINK · 3
SECTION · 3
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Ghost Riders In The Sky on drums

94 bars of 4/4 at a walking 109 BPM, 3:22 of playing, on hi-hat, snare and kick.

51 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the speed of the hand keeping time.

TEMPO
109 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
94
LENGTH
3:22
DIFFICULTY
51/100

hi-hat through bars 2-94.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 52-63 and 65-85 -- 35.5% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    52
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-xxx-xxx--xxxx-|
SD |----x-x-x-------|
BD |x-----------x---|
Ghost Riders In The Sky -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

There are no fills to speak of: the part holds one beat the whole way through.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 14 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 -- E, D -- 2 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  2. Through Part B and Part D -- 5 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  3. Bars 18-88 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. The whole song -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Ghost Riders In The Sky?

109 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 Ghost Riders In The Sky hard to play on drums?

51 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the speed of the hand keeping time. The beat itself is 42 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

94 bars, about 3:22 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 14 exercises over 4 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

hi-hat, snare and kick. Three pieces and no more -- this one is playable on almost anything with a kick, a snare and something to keep time on.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 94 BARS ANALYSED