ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Headstrong on drums

102 bars of 4/4 at a walking 92 BPM, 4:26 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

61 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 92 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 102
LENGTH: 4:26
DIFFICULTY: 61/100

toms through bars 1-2, hi-hat through bars 3-25, snare through bars 26-36, hi-hat through bars 37-55, snare through bars 56-64 and kick and crashes through bars 65-66, and 5 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 3, 5 and 19-21, and 6 more places -- 18.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    19               20
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|-------------x--|
HH |--o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|o-o-o-o-o-o-----|
SD |----x-------x---|----x-----------|
T1 |----------------|------------x---|
T2 |----------------|-------------x--|
FT |----------------|------------x---|
BD |xx----xx--x-----|xx----xx--x--x--|

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

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 37 times: bars 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 31 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 43 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 22 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- Q, F -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
Through the Chorus and Part F -- 7 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through Part F and Part I -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part I and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 17 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and Part P -- 6 exercises, about 34 minutes.
Bars 28-43 -- 5 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Bars 41-64 -- 5 exercises, about 21 minutes.
and 4 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Headstrong?

92 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 Headstrong hard to play on drums?

61 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 53 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

102 bars, about 4:26 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 43 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 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 Headstrong?

15 fills to learn, played 37 times: bars 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 31 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 102 BARS ANALYSED