ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Godspeed to Oblivion on drums

167 bars of 4/4 at 112 BPM, about 6:14 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

82 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 112 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 167
LENGTH: 6:14
DIFFICULTY: 82/100

snare through bars 1-8, toms through bars 9-10, snare through bars 11-17, hi-hat through bars 18-25, ride through bars 26-33 and hi-hat through bars 34-46, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 26-28, 30-32 and 50-52, and 7 more places -- 18.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    26                                               27
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x--------------------------------------------x--|x--------------------------------------------x--|
RD |------x--x--x-----x-----x-----x--x--x-----x-----|x-----x--x--x-----x-----x-----x--x--x-----x-----|
SD |---------g--x-----------g-----g-----x--------g--|g-----g-----x-----------g-----g-----x-----------|
BD |x--------x--------------x--------x-----------x--|x--------x--------------x--------x-----------x--|

Godspeed to Oblivion -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 25 times: bars 1, 2, 9, 10, 17, 25 and 19 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 49 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 -- H -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- C -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part C -- 4 exercises, about 14 minutes.
Through Part C -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part C and the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 10 minutes. Open above.
Through the Chorus and Part E -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part E and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
and 9 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Godspeed to Oblivion?

112 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 Godspeed to Oblivion hard to play on drums?

82 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 85 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

167 bars, about 6:14 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 49 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 Godspeed to Oblivion?

12 fills to learn, played 25 times: bars 1, 2, 9, 10, 17, 25 and 19 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 167 BARS ANALYSED