Moondance · Van Morrison

150 bars of 4/4 at 130 BPM, about 4:51 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, kick and hi-hat foot.

Jazz / BluesCountry / Folk120 to 149 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
130 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
150
LENGTH
4:51
DIFFICULTY
50/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 18% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 23, 25 and 56, and 11 more places -- 17.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 130 BPM
MOONDANCE · BAR 66
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

150 bars across 14 sections: 118 keep time, 3 are stops and 7 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-22.

CHORUS
PART I
PART K
PART S
PART K
PART L
PART M
CHORUS 2
PART E
OUTRO
9 groovesBKELS+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Moondance?

130 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 Moondance hard to play on drums?

50 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 39 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

150 bars, about 4:51 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 41 exercises over 11 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, kick and hi-hat foot. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 150 BARS ANALYSED
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