Me and Bobby McGee · Janis Joplin

103 bars of 4/4 at a walking 80 BPM, 5:09 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

RockJazz / BluesUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
80 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
103
LENGTH
5:09
DIFFICULTY
51/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 40% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 11-16, 19-24 and 29-43, and 5 more places -- 40.4% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 80 BPM
ME AND BOBBY MCGEE · BAR 11
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 17 times: bars 10, 18, 27, 28, 45, 54 and 11 more.

LOOP · 80 BPM
BAR 10 · LANDS ON BAR 11 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 80 BPM
BAR 18 · LANDS ON BAR 19 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 80 BPM
BARS 27-28 · LANDS ON BAR 29 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 80 BPM
BAR 63 · LANDS ON BAR 64

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

103 bars across 11 sections: 66 keep time, 17 are fills, 1 is a stop and 9 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 30-44.

COUNT-IN
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART J
CHORUS 3
PART O
PART S
7 groovesCOSDS1+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Me and Bobby McGee?

80 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth 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 Me and Bobby McGee hard to play on drums?

51 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 31 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

103 bars, about 5:09 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 34 exercises over 9 sittings, about 26 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 Me and Bobby McGee?

9 fills to learn, played 17 times: bars 10, 18, 27, 28, 45, 54 and 11 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 103 BARS ANALYSED
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