ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Imperium on drums

178 bars of 4/4 at 110 BPM, about 6:26 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO: 110 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 178
LENGTH: 6:26
DIFFICULTY: 76/100

silence through bars 1-16, ride through bars 17-24, snare through bars 25-40, hi-hat through bars 41-56, ride through bars 57-58 and hi-hat through bars 59-62, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 41-43, 45-47 and 49-51, and 5 more places -- 14.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    41
    1...............2...............3...............4...............
CC |x---------------------------------------------------------------|
HH |----------------o---------------o---------------o---------------|
SD |----------------x-------------------------------x---------------|
T2 |--------------------x---x---------------------------------------|
FT |----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---|

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

The fills

2 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 44, 56, 62, 68, 84, 88 and 2 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 53 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 -- H -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- R -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- X -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes. Open above.
Through Part A and Part C -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part C and Part E -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
Through Part E and the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 17 minutes.
Through Part E and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
and 14 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Imperium?

110 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 Imperium hard to play on drums?

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 65 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

178 bars, about 6:26 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 53 exercises over 22 sittings, about 22 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 Imperium?

2 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 44, 56, 62, 68, 84, 88 and 2 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 178 BARS ANALYSED