ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play owl on drums

127 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 4:10 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

81 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 120 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 127
LENGTH: 4:10
DIFFICULTY: 81/100

ride through bars 1-2, hi-hat through bars 3-6, ride through bars 7-9, hi-hat through bars 10-16, snare through bars 17-23 and toms through bars 24-25, and 14 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 99-120 -- 20% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    99                               100
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
HH |x-----------x-----------x-------|----x-----------x---x---x---x---|
SD |X-----------------------X-------|----------------X---------------|
T1 |----X---------------X-------X---|------------X---------------X---|
T2 |--------X-------X---------------|X-------X-----------X-----------|
FT |------------X-------------------|----X-------------------X-------|
BD |X-X---------X-----------X-------|----X-----------X-X-----X---X---|

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

The fills

2 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 1, 2, 28, 29, 30 and 31.

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.

The grooves the song is built on -- AL -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- AG -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- AN -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
Through Part C -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
Through Part C -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Bars 5-21 -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Bars 15-24 -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
Through Part L and Part N -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
and 9 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is owl?

120 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 owl hard to play on drums?

81 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 65 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

127 bars, about 4:10 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 44 exercises over 17 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 owl?

2 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 1, 2, 28, 29, 30 and 31.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 127 BARS ANALYSED