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Prisoner · Dance Gavin Dance

EXERCISE 39 OF 64
Join Part M to Part Q (bars 55-57)
90 / 117 BARS COVERED
0 / 64 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART M, PART Q
PART C
PART C
CHORUS
PART M
PART Q
CHORUS 2
PART S
PART X
10 groovesGCMSX+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 15
LAND · 15
RUN · 3
JOIN · 9
LINK · 5
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Prisoner on drums

117 bars of 4/4 at 125 BPM, about 3:45 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
125 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
117
LENGTH
3:45
DIFFICULTY
52/100

hi-hat through bars 1-4, ride through bars 5-12, hi-hat through bars 13-16, ride through bars 17-24, snare through bars 25-40 and silence through bars 41-43, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 25-27, 29-30 and 33-35, and 5 more places -- 18.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    25
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---x---x---x---|
SD |------x-----x---|
BD |x--x------x-----|
Prisoner -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 and 12 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 48 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 -- G, C -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- S -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Through Part A and Part C -- 7 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  4. Bars 11-28 -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through Part C and the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  6. Bars 39-51 -- 7 exercises, about 36 minutes.
  7. Through Part M and Part Q -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  8. Bars 53-81 -- 8 exercises, about 31 minutes. Open above.
  9. and 5 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Prisoner?

125 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 Prisoner hard to play on drums?

52 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 25 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

117 bars, about 3:45 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 48 exercises over 13 sittings, about 26 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 Prisoner?

15 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 and 12 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 117 BARS ANALYSED