ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Petroleum on drums

92 bars at 166 BPM -- fast, and 2:25 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 166 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 92
LENGTH: 2:25
DIFFICULTY: 67/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-7, snare through bars 8-16, hi-hat through bars 17-32, snare through bars 33-42, hi-hat through bars 43-74 and kick and crashes through bars 75-76, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 19-20, 24-26 and 29-30, and 3 more places -- 18.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    19                               20
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |--------x-----------------------|x-----------------------x---x---|
RD |------x-------------------------|------x-------------------------|
HH |o---o-------o---o---o---o---o---|----o---o---o---o---o-----------|
SD |--------x-----------------------|--------x---------------x---x---|
FT |----------------x-x-----x-x-----|------------x-x-----------------|
BD |x---x-x-x-----------------------|x---x-x-x-------x---x-----------|

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

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17 and 9 more.

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 -- J -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- N -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part A and Part G -- 3 exercises, about 14 minutes.
Through Part G -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes. Open above.
Through Part G and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Bars 18-40 -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part N and Part P -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
and 5 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Petroleum?

166 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. At that speed the thirty-second notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Petroleum hard to play on drums?

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 68 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

92 bars, about 2:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 13 sittings, about 23 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 Petroleum?

7 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 92 BARS ANALYSED