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S.O.S. · ABBA

EXERCISE 1 OF 20
Groove C -- Part C (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 81 BARS COVERED
0 / 20 PASSED · 13 BARS LIT
PART C
CHORUS
PART S4
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesES4CS6S1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 3
FILL · 3
LAND · 3
RUN · 1
JOIN · 5
LINK · 1
SECTION · 3
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play S.O.S. on drums

81 bars of 4/4 at 115 BPM, about 2:49 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom and kick.

36 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with how many limbs land on the same note the part that decides it.

TEMPO
115 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
81
LENGTH
2:49
DIFFICULTY
36/100

silence through bars 1-5, hi-hat through bars 6-22, silence through bars 23-36, hi-hat through bars 37-53, silence through bars 54-58 and hi-hat through bars 59-81.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 7-9, 11 and 13, and 4 more places -- 21.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    38               39
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |------------x---|------------x---|
RD |x-------x-------|x-------x-------|
HH |o---o-----------|o---o-o---------|
SD |x---x---x---x---|x---x-x-x---x---|
T1 |----------------|--------x-------|
T2 |----x-------x---|----x-------x---|
BD |x---x---x---x---|x---x-x-x---x---|
S.O.S. -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 36, 43, 58 and 65.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 16 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 -- C, E -- 2 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Bars 20-52 -- 8 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. The whole song -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is S.O.S.?

115 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 S.O.S. hard to play on drums?

36 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with how many limbs land on the same note the part that decides it. The beat itself is 39 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

81 bars, about 2:49 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 16 exercises over 4 sittings, about 28 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid 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 S.O.S.?

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 36, 43, 58 and 65.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 81 BARS ANALYSED