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Montana · Frank Zappa

EXERCISE 20 OF 75
Groove U
44 / 142 BARS COVERED
0 / 75 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 3
PART A
CHORUS
BREAK
PART AB
PART AF
CHORUS 3
PART AI
OUTRO 2
9 groovesS7MJABAF+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 15
FILL · 17
LAND · 17
RUN · 4
JOIN · 11
LINK · 3
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Montana on drums

142 bars of 4/4 at a walking 90 BPM, 6:19 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

65 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how fine the subdivision is.

TEMPO
90 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
142
LENGTH
6:19
DIFFICULTY
65/100

hi-hat through bars 1-4, snare through bars 5-6, hi-hat through bars 7-10, toms through bars 11-13, hi-hat through bars 14-26 and toms through bars 27-30, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 11-12, 27-28 and 95-96, and 1 more place -- 7.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    11
    1...............2...............3...............4...............
FT |x-------x---------------------------------------xx-xxx-xxx-xxx-x|
Montana -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

17 fills to learn, played 34 times: bars 4, 5, 6, 13, 14, 18 and 28 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 57 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 -- J, AF -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- M -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Through Part A -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
  4. Through Part A -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  5. Through Part A -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  6. Bars 7-15 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  8. Bars 23-31 -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
  9. and 11 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Montana?

90 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 Montana hard to play on drums?

65 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how fine the subdivision is. The beat itself is 32 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

142 bars, about 6:19 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 57 exercises over 19 sittings, about 26 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 Montana?

17 fills to learn, played 34 times: bars 4, 5, 6, 13, 14, 18 and 28 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 142 BARS ANALYSED