ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Obsession on drums

121 bars of 4/4 at 130 BPM, about 3:43 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

95 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO: 130 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 121
LENGTH: 3:43
DIFFICULTY: 95/100

kick and crashes through bar 1, ride through bars 2-13, hi-hat through bars 14-21, snare through bars 22-25, ride through bars 26-38 and snare through bars 39-41, and 8 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 2-4, 10-12 and 42-44, and 3 more places -- 15.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    2                                                                3
    1...............2...............3...............4............... 1...............2...............3...............4...............
CC |x---------------------------------------------------------------|x-----------------------------------------------x-------x-------|
RD |----x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|----x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x-------x-------x---|
SD |--x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x-|--x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x-|
BD |x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|

Obsession -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

14 fills to learn, played 42 times: bars 1, 3, 5, 11, 13, 17 and 36 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 46 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 1 exercise, about 23 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- M -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Bars 4-10 -- 3 exercises, about 14 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 -- 1 exercise, about 20 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and Part J -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part J -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part J and Part M -- 4 exercises, about 17 minutes. Open above.
and 10 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Obsession?

130 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 Obsession hard to play on drums?

95 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 100 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

121 bars, about 3:43 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 46 exercises over 18 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, 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 Obsession?

14 fills to learn, played 42 times: bars 1, 3, 5, 11, 13, 17 and 36 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 121 BARS ANALYSED