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Having A Blast · Green Day

EXERCISE 15 OF 46
Groove O
75 / 117 BARS COVERED
0 / 46 PASSED · 8 BARS LIT · IN THE PART K, CHORUS, CHORUS 2
PART C
PART E
PART K
CHORUS
PART E
PART K
CHORUS 2
PART G
OUTRO 2
8 groovesPKEGC+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 2
JOIN · 8
LINK · 4
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Having A Blast on drums

117 bars at 180 BPM -- fast, and 2:36 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
180 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
117
LENGTH
2:36
DIFFICULTY
66/100

ride through bars 3-4, hi-hat through bars 5-8, toms through bars 9-12, hi-hat through bars 13-16, toms through bars 17-20 and hi-hat through bars 21-24, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 31, 39 and 41-47, and 4 more places -- 21.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    41               42
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---x---------x-|----------------|
RD |----------------|----x---x---x---|
HH |--------x-o-----|----------------|
SD |----x-------x---|----x-------x---|
BD |x---x---x-x---x-|--x---x-x-x---x-|
HF |------------x---|----------------|
Having A Blast -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 12, 20, 24, 32, 40, 52 and 8 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 38 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 -- P, E -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  3. Through Part C and Part E -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Through Part E -- 2 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  5. Through Part E and Part K -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through Part K -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes. Open above.
  7. Bars 33-53 -- 6 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  8. Bars 49-101 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Having A Blast?

180 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Having A Blast hard to play on drums?

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 41 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

117 bars, about 2:36 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 12 sittings, about 26 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 Having A Blast?

7 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 12, 20, 24, 32, 40, 52 and 8 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 117 BARS ANALYSED