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Parabol / Parabola · Tool

EXERCISE 1 OF 87
Groove E -- Part E (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 176 BARS COVERED
0 / 87 PASSED · 16 BARS LIT
BREAK
PART S6
BREAK 4
BREAK 6
BREAK 8
PART E
PART S18
PART M
PART O
PART Y
PART AG
PART AN
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
24 groovesS29ANYBAE+19Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 15
FILL · 16
LAND · 16
RUN · 2
JOIN · 16
LINK · 5
SECTION · 16
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Parabol / Parabola on drums

176 bars of 4/4 at a walking 80 BPM, 9:32 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO
80 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
176
LENGTH
9:32
DIFFICULTY
74/100

silence through bars 1-4, kick and crashes through bars 5-8, silence through bars 9-10, kick and crashes through bars 11-16, silence through bars 17-19 and kick and crashes through bars 20-23, and 28 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 11-12, 15-16 and 26-27, and 4 more places -- 11.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    11                               12
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |------------------------xxxxxxxx|xxxxxxxx------------------------|
Parabol / Parabola -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

16 fills to learn, played 44 times: bars 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 15 and 38 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 70 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 -- E, M -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  3. Through Part S2 and Part D -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  4. Bars 5-21 -- 8 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Bars 20-42 -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Bars 41-50 -- 3 exercises, about 13 minutes.
  7. Through Part J -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
  8. Through Part J and Part M -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 16 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Parabol / Parabola?

80 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 Parabol / Parabola hard to play on drums?

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 26 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

176 bars, about 9:32 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 70 exercises over 24 sittings, about 24 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 Parabol / Parabola?

16 fills to learn, played 44 times: bars 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 15 and 38 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 176 BARS ANALYSED