ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Siena on drums

112 bars of 4/4 at 150 BPM, about 2:59 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 150 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 112
LENGTH: 2:59
DIFFICULTY: 68/100

snare through bars 1-58, hi-hat through bars 59-79, toms through bars 80-81, hi-hat through bars 82-83, snare through bars 84-85 and hi-hat through bars 86-87, and 11 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 44-45, 48-49 and 52-53, and 9 more places -- 21.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    44                               45
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x---------------x-----x---x-----|----------------x---------------|
HH |--------------------------------|--------o-----------------------|
SD |----------------x---------------|----------------x---------------|
BD |--------x-------x---x-x---x---x-|--------x-------x-x-x-x---x---x-|

Siena -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 4, 8, 16, 29, 36, 38 and 8 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 33 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- AA, Z -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part C -- 6 exercises, about 36 minutes.
Through Part C and Part G -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part G and Part C -- 9 exercises, about 35 minutes.
Bars 38-61 -- 8 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through the Outro -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
and 2 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Siena?

150 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 Siena hard to play on drums?

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 53 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

112 bars, about 2:59 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 10 sittings, about 28 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 Siena?

12 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 4, 8, 16, 29, 36, 38 and 8 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 112 BARS ANALYSED