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I Can’t Play the Blues · Bumblefoot

EXERCISE 1 OF 14
Groove D -- Chorus
0 / 97 BARS COVERED
0 / 14 PASSED · 75 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, OUTRO 2
CHORUS
OUTRO 2
2 groovesDHFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 4
FILL · 2
LAND · 2
RUN · 1
JOIN · 2
SECTION · 2
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play I Can’t Play the Blues on drums

97 bars of 4/4 at 118 BPM, about 3:16 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
118 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
97
LENGTH
3:16
DIFFICULTY
70/100

hi-hat through bars 1-73, snare through bars 74-75, hi-hat through bars 76-93 and snare through bars 94-97.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 4-22, 24-26 and 28-40, and 7 more places -- 77.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    4
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
HH |o-------o-------o-------o-------|
SD |--------x-----x---------x-------|
BD |x-------------------x-----x-----|
I Can’t Play the Blues -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

2 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 74, 75, 94, 95 and 96.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 11 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 -- D -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  2. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus and the Outro -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  5. The whole song -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is I Can’t Play the Blues?

118 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 I Can’t Play the Blues hard to play on drums?

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 50 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

97 bars, about 3:16 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 11 exercises over 5 sittings, about 23 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 I Can’t Play the Blues?

2 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 74, 75, 94, 95 and 96.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 97 BARS ANALYSED