Purple Rain · Prince & The Revolution

106 bars, 6:59, at 60 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

Under 90 BPM
TEMPO
60 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
106
LENGTH
6:59
DIFFICULTY
51/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 45% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 5-11, 15-20 and 24-29, and 11 more places -- 45% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 60 BPM
PURPLE RAIN · BAR 11
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

8 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 13, 22, 31, 40, 49, 58 and 12 more.

LOOP · 60 BPM
BAR 13 · LANDS ON BAR 14 · PLAYED 6 TIMES
LOOP · 60 BPM
BAR 70 · LANDS ON BAR 71
LOOP · 60 BPM
BAR 74 · LANDS ON BAR 75
LOOP · 60 BPM
BAR 78 · LANDS ON BAR 79

4 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

106 bars across 7 sections: 76 keep time, 18 are fills, 3 are stops and 6 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 4-12.

CHORUS
PART J
PART S5
7 groovesBJS5KR+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Purple Rain?

60 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Purple Rain hard to play on drums?

51 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how fine the subdivision is. The beat itself is 30 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

106 bars, about 6:59 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 25 exercises over 8 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Purple Rain?

8 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 13, 22, 31, 40, 49, 58 and 12 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 106 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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