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No Excuses · Alice in Chains

EXERCISE 1 OF 41
Groove F -- Chorus
0 / 117 BARS COVERED
0 / 41 PASSED · 27 BARS LIT
PART A
CHORUS
PART K
CHORUS 2
PART K
PART G
PART K
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesFKYAGFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 10
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 1
JOIN · 6
LINK · 4
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play No Excuses on drums

117 bars of 4/4 at 117 BPM, about 4:00 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
117 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
117
LENGTH
4:00
DIFFICULTY
69/100

The time is kept on the hi-hat the whole way through.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 7, 9 and 11, and 24 more places -- 23.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    9
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
HH |x---x-------xxxx----------------|
SD |--------x-----------x---x-------|
T2 |----------------------------x---|
BD |x---------------x---------------|
No Excuses -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 28, 36 and 9 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 33 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 -- F, G -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes. Open above.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  3. Through Part A -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Through Part A and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  5. Through Part A and the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  7. Through Part K -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus and Part K -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is No Excuses?

117 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 No Excuses hard to play on drums?

69 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how fine the subdivision is. The beat itself is 40 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

117 bars, about 4:00 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 12 sittings, about 24 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 No Excuses?

7 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 28, 36 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 117 BARS ANALYSED