Hold On · Tom Waits

106 bars, 5:35, at 73 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

Jazz / BluesPunkUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
73 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
106
LENGTH
5:35
DIFFICULTY
16/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 37% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 24-26, 33-41 and 54-56, and 3 more places -- 36.5% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 73 BPM
HOLD ON · BAR 24
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

1 fill to learn, played 2 times: bars 78 and 79.

LOOP · 73 BPM
BARS 78-79 · LANDS ON BAR 80 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

106 bars across 16 sections: 59 keep time, 2 are fills and 43 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 87-106.

PART S3
CHORUS
PART E
PART F
PART G
BREAK 5
PART E
OUTRO
13 groovesBES3S13F+8Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Hold On?

73 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Hold On hard to play on drums?

16 out of 100: straightforward, and the one thing to watch is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 24 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

106 bars, about 5:35 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 11 exercises over 3 sittings, about 22 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, kick and hi-hat foot. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

How many fills are in Hold On?

1 fill to learn, played 2 times: bars 78 and 79.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 106 BARS ANALYSED
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