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La Grange · ZZ Top

EXERCISE 23 OF 51
Join Part F to Part I (bars 36-38)
134 / 154 BARS COVERED
0 / 51 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART F, PART I
PART B
PART F
PART I
PART J
PART F
CHORUS
PART N
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
8 groovesLFBEN+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 8
LAND · 8
RUN · 2
JOIN · 10
LINK · 6
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play La Grange on drums

154 bars at 162 BPM -- fast, and 3:48 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO
162 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
154
LENGTH
3:48
DIFFICULTY
74/100

snare through bars 1-25, ride through bars 26-33, hi-hat through bars 34-49, ride through bars 50-81, hi-hat through bars 82-89 and snare through bars 90-97, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 52, 56 and 58, and 8 more places -- 40.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    52
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
RD |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x-----g-----------g-----x-----g-----------g-----|
La Grange -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

8 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 24, 25, 33, 49, 89, 96 and 5 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 42 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 -- L, B -- 3 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- F -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus 2 and the Outro -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  4. Bars 1-118 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Through Part F -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through Part I and Part J -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  7. Bars 36-73 -- 7 exercises, about 34 minutes. Open above.
  8. Through the Chorus and Part N -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is La Grange?

162 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. At that speed the thirty-second notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is La Grange hard to play on drums?

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 65 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

154 bars, about 3:48 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 42 exercises over 12 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 La Grange?

8 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 24, 25, 33, 49, 89, 96 and 5 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 154 BARS ANALYSED