ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Pharmaecopia on drums

160 bars of 4/4 at a walking 97 BPM, 5:48 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO: 97 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 160
LENGTH: 5:48
DIFFICULTY: 78/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-5, hi-hat through bars 6-20, snare through bars 21-28, hi-hat through bars 29-36, snare through bars 37-41 and hi-hat through bars 42-53, and 9 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 76-81 and 153-158 -- 7.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    76                               77
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------------------------------|x-------------------------------|
RD |----x---x-------x---x-------x---|----x---------------x-----------|
HH |--o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o-|--o-------o---o-----------o---o-|
SD |------------x-----------x-------|----------------x---------------|
T1 |--------------------------------|------x-------------------------|
T2 |--------------------------------|--------x-------------x---------|
FT |--------------------------------|------------x-----x-----x---x---|
BD |x-----x---x---------x-----x---x-|x-------------------------------|

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

The fills

25 fills to learn, played 86 times: bars 6, 10, 16, 20, 21, 23 and 80 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 72 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 -- AW -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- BE -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
Bars 2-100 -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
Through Part A and Part D -- 4 exercises, about 17 minutes.
Through Part K -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
Through Part K -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part D and Part K -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
and 20 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Pharmaecopia?

97 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 Pharmaecopia hard to play on drums?

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

How long is the drum part?

160 bars, about 5:48 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 72 exercises over 28 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 Pharmaecopia?

25 fills to learn, played 86 times: bars 6, 10, 16, 20, 21, 23 and 80 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 160 BARS ANALYSED