letters a-e and the stars · salems rocks

337 bars at 180 BPM -- fast, and 7:52 of it without a break -- on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

150 BPM and up
TEMPO
180 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
337
LENGTH
7:52
DIFFICULTY
75/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 9% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 39-41, 43-45 and 47-49, and 5 more places -- 9.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 180 BPM
LETTERS A-E AND THE STARS · BARS 39-40
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

12 fills to learn, played 42 times: bars 40, 42, 46, 50, 54, 58 and 36 more.

LOOP · 180 BPM
BAR 40 · LANDS ON BAR 41 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 180 BPM
BAR 42 · LANDS ON BAR 43 · PLAYED 8 TIMES
LOOP · 180 BPM
BAR 101 · LANDS ON BAR 102 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 180 BPM
BAR 104 · LANDS ON BAR 105

8 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

337 bars across 19 sections: 188 keep time, 42 are fills, 7 are stops and 81 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 287-308.

PART C
PART G
BREAK
PART AI
PART AL
CHORUS
BREAK 4
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
17 groovesATS16AYALG+12Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is letters a-e and the stars?

180 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 letters a-e and the stars hard to play on drums?

75 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 58 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

337 bars, about 7:52 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 67 exercises over 24 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 letters a-e and the stars?

12 fills to learn, played 42 times: bars 40, 42, 46, 50, 54, 58 and 36 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 337 BARS ANALYSED
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