ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Harlequin Forest on drums

238 bars of 4/4 at a walking 100 BPM, 9:30 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO: 100 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 238
LENGTH: 9:30
DIFFICULTY: 85/100

snare through bar 1, hi-hat through bars 2-32, ride through bars 33-40, hi-hat through bars 41-56, ride through bars 57-74 and hi-hat through bars 75-104, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 3, 5-6 and 9, and 11 more places -- 11.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    5                                6
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
HH |----o---o---o---o---o---o---o---|o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---|
SD |--x-----x-x-------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-----|

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

The fills

26 fills to learn, played 48 times: bars 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 14 and 42 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 79 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 -- C -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- AP (a two-bar phrase) -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- AT -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 32 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part K -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
Through the Chorus and Part K -- 3 exercises, about 13 minutes.
Through Part K and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
and 21 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Harlequin Forest?

100 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 Harlequin Forest hard to play on drums?

85 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 77 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

238 bars, about 9:30 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 79 exercises over 29 sittings, about 25 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 Harlequin Forest?

26 fills to learn, played 48 times: bars 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 14 and 42 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 238 BARS ANALYSED