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Happy · Pharrell

Happy · Pharrell
EXERCISE 12 OF 15
Join Part D to Chorus 3 (bars 40-42)
77 / 77 BARS COVERED
0 / 15 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART D, CHORUS 3
PART B
CHORUS
PART B
CHORUS 2
PART D
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
3 groovesCBDFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 3
RUN · 1
JOIN · 4
LINK · 4
SECTION · 2
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Happy on drums

77 bars of 4/4 at a walking 80 BPM, 3:51 of playing, on hi-hat, snare and kick.

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

TEMPO
80 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
77
LENGTH
3:51
DIFFICULTY
65/100

hi-hat through bars 1-33, snare through bars 34-41, hi-hat through bars 42-57, snare through bars 58-61 and hi-hat through bars 62-77.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 10-17, 26-33 and 42-57, and 1 more place -- 62.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    10
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |X-x-o-x-X-x-o-x-|
BD |g--g-g-gg--g-g-g|
Happy -- 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 -- C -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  2. Through Part B and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  3. Bars 14-37 -- 6 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  4. The whole song -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Happy?

80 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 Happy hard to play on drums?

65 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 55 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

77 bars, about 3:51 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 14 exercises over 4 sittings, about 26 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 · 77 BARS ANALYSED