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Once · Pearl Jam

EXERCISE 20 OF 57
Join Part K to Chorus (bars 27-29)
61 / 99 BARS COVERED
0 / 57 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART K, CHORUS
PART B
PART J
PART K
CHORUS
PART I
PART K
CHORUS 2
PART S
OUTRO 2
9 groovesMBKJS+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 12
LAND · 12
RUN · 3
JOIN · 10
LINK · 1
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Once on drums

99 bars of 4/4 at a walking 81 BPM, 4:47 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
81 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
99
LENGTH
4:47
DIFFICULTY
64/100

snare through bars 1-12, hi-hat through bars 13-28, ride through bars 29-35, hi-hat through bars 36-48, ride through bars 49-56 and hi-hat through bars 57-72, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 29-31, 33-35 and 49-51, and 6 more places -- 23.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    30
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RD |x-g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x--x--x---x---x-|
Once -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 29 times: bars 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 23 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 44 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 -- M, J -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  3. Through Part B and Part G -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Bars 11-38 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Bars 17-29 -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Bars 27-37 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
  7. Bars 36-49 -- 7 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus 2 and Part S -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 6 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Once?

81 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 Once hard to play on drums?

64 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 45 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

99 bars, about 4:47 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 44 exercises over 14 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Once?

12 fills to learn, played 29 times: bars 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 23 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 99 BARS ANALYSED