ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Pale Tongue on drums

115 bars of 4/4 at 150 BPM, about 3:03 of playing, on crash, ride, 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: 150 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 115
LENGTH: 3:03
DIFFICULTY: 81/100

snare through bars 2-47, toms through bars 48-57, snare through bars 58-73, silence through bars 74-77, snare through bars 78-104 and ride through bars 105-111, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 2-4, 6-9 and 27-29, and 3 more places -- 17% 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-----x-----x--------x--|------x-----x-----x-----x--------x--------x-----|
SD |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--|

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

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 18, 34, 107 and 111.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 38 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 18 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 1 exercise, about 14 minutes.
Through Part B and the Break -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part B -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part B and Part K -- 5 exercises, about 22 minutes.
Through Part K and the Chorus 2 -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
and 7 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Pale Tongue?

150 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 Pale Tongue 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 72 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

115 bars, about 3:03 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 15 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Pale Tongue?

4 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 18, 34, 107 and 111.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 115 BARS ANALYSED