← SONGS

Moondance · Van Morrison

EXERCISE 27 OF 42
Groove T
126 / 150 BARS COVERED
0 / 42 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART S, PART L
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
GROOVE · 13
RUN · 3
JOIN · 11
LINK · 8
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Moondance on drums

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

50 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
130 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
150
LENGTH
4:51
DIFFICULTY
50/100

ride through bars 1-26, hi-hat through bars 27-29, snare through bars 30-36, ride through bars 37-95, hi-hat through bars 96-98 and ride through bars 99-123, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

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.

    66
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RD |x---x---x---x---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-------|
Moondance -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

There are no fills to speak of: the part holds one beat the whole way through.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 41 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 -- E, B -- 3 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Bars 20-30 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Bars 25-92 -- 6 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  5. Through Part K and Part L -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Bars 46-58 -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  7. Through Part L and Part S -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  8. Through Part S and Part K -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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