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Portrait of a Blank Slate · Lovejoy

EXERCISE 17 OF 53
Groove K
81 / 150 BARS COVERED
0 / 53 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2
PART B
PART E
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART W
OUTRO
11 groovesJNLEF+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 9
LAND · 9
RUN · 4
JOIN · 10
LINK · 2
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Portrait of a Blank Slate on drums

150 bars at 161 BPM -- fast, and 3:44 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

57 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
161 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
150
LENGTH
3:44
DIFFICULTY
57/100

silence through bars 1-7, kick and crashes through bars 8-13, hi-hat through bars 14-38, toms through bars 39-40, hi-hat through bars 41-56 and snare through bars 57-74, and 9 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 43-47, 49-51 and 53-55, and 5 more places -- 14.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    43
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |xxxx-xx-xxxx-xxx|
SD |----x--x----x---|
BD |x-x-------x-----|
Portrait of a Blank Slate -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

9 fills to learn, played 23 times: bars 40, 56, 60, 62, 64, 68 and 17 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 43 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 -- J, E -- 2 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- L -- 5 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  3. Bars 16-33 -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  4. Bars 41-147 -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus and Part L -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes. Open above.
  7. Bars 61-141 -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Bars 60-145 -- 7 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Portrait of a Blank Slate?

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

Is Portrait of a Blank Slate hard to play on drums?

57 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 66 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

150 bars, about 3:44 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 43 exercises over 12 sittings, about 27 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 Portrait of a Blank Slate?

9 fills to learn, played 23 times: bars 40, 56, 60, 62, 64, 68 and 17 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 150 BARS ANALYSED