← SONGS

Shapeshifter · Memphis May Fire

EXERCISE 3 OF 32
Groove G
31 / 98 BARS COVERED
0 / 32 PASSED · 5 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, PART A, OUTRO
CHORUS
PART A
PART L
PART A
BREAK
PART R
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesCARLS5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 10
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 1
JOIN · 6
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Shapeshifter on drums

98 bars of 4/4 at 127 BPM, about 3:05 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
127 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
98
LENGTH
3:05
DIFFICULTY
63/100

snare through bar 1, hi-hat through bars 2-12, toms through bars 13-20, snare through bars 21-38, toms through bars 39-41 and snare through bars 42-50, and 5 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 3-4, 7-8 and 10-12, and 9 more places -- 22.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    23
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------x-------x-------x-------|
SD |--------x---------------x-------|
BD |x-----x-----x-----x---x---x---x-|
Shapeshifter -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

5 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 5, 9, 13, 14, 25, 34 and 5 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 26 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 -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  4. Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part A -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  6. Through Part A and Part L -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  7. Through Part L -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  8. Bars 34-60 -- 4 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Shapeshifter?

127 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Shapeshifter hard to play on drums?

63 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 58 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

98 bars, about 3:05 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 26 exercises over 11 sittings, about 22 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, 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 Shapeshifter?

5 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 5, 9, 13, 14, 25, 34 and 5 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 98 BARS ANALYSED