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Island · Mastodon

EXERCISE 27 OF 90
Groove W (a two-bar phrase)
70 / 129 BARS COVERED
0 / 90 PASSED · 5 BARS LIT · IN THE PART U
PART C
CHORUS
PART U
CHORUS 2
PART U
PART C
CHORUS 3
PART U
PART AM
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesJUCAMAW+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 29
LAND · 29
RUN · 4
JOIN · 8
LINK · 6
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Island on drums

129 bars of 3/4 -- not four -- at 125 BPM, 3:25 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

82 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO
125 BPM
TIME
3/4
BARS
129
LENGTH
3:25
DIFFICULTY
82/100

silence through bars 1-4, hi-hat through bars 5-16, snare through bars 17-32, hi-hat through bars 33-39, snare through bars 40-48 and hi-hat through bars 49-72, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 33-38, 49-54 and 81-86 -- 14.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    33                                               34
    1...............2...............3............... 1...............2...............3...............
HH |o-------o---o-------o-------o-------o-------o---|o-------o-------o-------o-------o---o---o---o---|
SD |x-------x---x-------x-------x-------x-------x---|x-------x-------x-------x-------x---x---x---x---|
BD |----x-x---x-----x-------x-------x-------x-x---x-|----x-------x-------x-------x-x-----------------|
Island -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

29 fills to learn, played 56 times: bars 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and 50 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 60 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 -- U -- 1 exercise, about 21 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- C -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  5. Through Part C -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  6. Through Part C and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 12 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus and Part U -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  8. Through Part U and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  9. and 12 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Island?

125 BPM, in 3/4, 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 Island hard to play on drums?

82 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 91 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

129 bars, about 3:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 60 exercises over 20 sittings, about 25 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 Island?

29 fills to learn, played 56 times: bars 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and 50 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 129 BARS ANALYSED