No Surprises · Radiohead

67 bars, 3:37, at 74 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

Alternative / IndieRockUnder 90 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
74 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
67
LENGTH
3:37
DIFFICULTY
49/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 41% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 17, 19-23 and 25-27, and 14 more places -- 41.1% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 74 BPM
NO SURPRISES · BAR 29
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 13 times: bars 16, 24, 28, 34, 46, 49 and 7 more.

LOOP · 74 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17
LOOP · 74 BPM
BAR 24 · LANDS ON BAR 25
LOOP · 74 BPM
BAR 28 · LANDS ON BAR 29
LOOP · 74 BPM
BAR 34 · LANDS ON BAR 35 · PLAYED 4 TIMES

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

67 bars across 5 sections: 39 keep time, 13 are fills, 2 are stops and 11 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 5-15.

COUNT-IN
PART B
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesDBS4S1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is No Surprises?

74 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is No Surprises hard to play on drums?

49 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 34 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

67 bars, about 3:37 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 19 exercises over 5 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 No Surprises?

9 fills to learn, played 13 times: bars 16, 24, 28, 34, 46, 49 and 7 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 67 BARS ANALYSED
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