Panama · Van Halen

123 bars of 4/4 at 141 BPM, about 3:29 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

RockPop120 to 149 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
141 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
123
LENGTH
3:29
DIFFICULTY
71/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 26% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 28-33, 52-57 and 85-89, and 1 more place -- 26.2% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 141 BPM
PANAMA · BAR 28
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

7 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 8, 18, 34, 38, 39, 40 and 8 more.

LOOP · 141 BPM
BAR 8 · LANDS ON BAR 9
LOOP · 141 BPM
BAR 18 · LANDS ON BAR 19 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 141 BPM
BAR 34 · LANDS ON BAR 35 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 141 BPM
BARS 38-40 · LANDS ON BAR 41 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

3 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

123 bars across 12 sections: 88 keep time, 14 are fills, 2 are stops and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 86-105.

PART B
PART F
CHORUS
PART D
CHORUS 2
PART F
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesMFDBE+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Panama?

141 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 Panama hard to play on drums?

71 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 57 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

123 bars, about 3:29 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 43 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 Panama?

7 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 8, 18, 34, 38, 39, 40 and 8 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 123 BARS ANALYSED
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