Serpents better · Sharon Van Etten

90 bars of 4/4 at 122 BPM, about 2:57 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare and kick.

120 to 149 BPMFour drums or fewer
TEMPO
122 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
90
LENGTH
2:57
DIFFICULTY
44/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 28% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 36-40, 51-60 and 71-73, and 1 more place -- 28% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 122 BPM
SERPENTS BETTER · BAR 37
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 41, 49, 68, 74, 80 and 83.

LOOP · 122 BPM
BAR 41 · LANDS ON BAR 42 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 122 BPM
BAR 49 · LANDS ON BAR 50 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

90 bars across 12 sections: 64 keep time, 6 are fills, 1 is a stop and 8 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 51-60.

COUNT-IN
PART A
PART B
PART C
PART D
CHORUS
PART C
CHORUS 2
PART C
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
8 groovesECS1AD+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Serpents better?

122 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 Serpents better hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet 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?

90 bars, about 2:57 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 27 exercises over 8 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare and kick. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

How many fills are in Serpents better?

2 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 41, 49, 68, 74, 80 and 83.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 90 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →