ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Gravedigger on drums

117 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 3:54 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

73 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 120 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 117
LENGTH: 3:54
DIFFICULTY: 73/100

silence through bars 1-8, toms through bars 9-15, snare through bars 16-46, ride through bars 47-48, snare through bars 49-89 and silence through bars 90-96, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 37-43 and 73-79 -- 13.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    37                                               38
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|x-----x-----x-----x-----x--------x--------x-----|
SD |------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--------|

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

The fills

10 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 48, 52, 57, 66, 70, 72 and 4 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 42 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 -- M -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- D, P -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Bars 9-49 -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part B and Part D -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
Through Part D -- 3 exercises, about 32 minutes. Open above.
Through Part D and Part I -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Bars 25-45 -- 5 exercises, about 25 minutes.
Through Part M and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
and 6 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Gravedigger?

120 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 Gravedigger hard to play on drums?

73 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 69 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

117 bars, about 3:54 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 42 exercises over 14 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Gravedigger?

10 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 48, 52, 57, 66, 70, 72 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 117 BARS ANALYSED