Sir Duke · Stevie Wonder

104 bars of 4/4 at a walking 107 BPM, 3:53 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Funk / SoulJazz / Blues90 to 119 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
107 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
104
LENGTH
3:53
DIFFICULTY
71/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 20% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 29-35, 65-71 and 97-103 -- 20.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 107 BPM
SIR DUKE · BAR 29
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 28 times: bars 8, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24 and 22 more.

LOOP · 107 BPM
BAR 8 · LANDS ON BAR 9
LOOP · 107 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 6 TIMES
LOOP · 107 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 107 BPM
BARS 23-24 · LANDS ON BAR 25 · PLAYED 4 TIMES

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

104 bars across 13 sections: 59 keep time and 28 are fills. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 28-35.

PART A
PART D
PART K
CHORUS
PART D
PART T
CHORUS 2
PART AC
PART AD
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
9 groovesPDTAJA+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Sir Duke?

107 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 Sir Duke hard to play on drums?

71 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 54 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

104 bars, about 3:53 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 49 exercises over 16 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, 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 Sir Duke?

9 fills to learn, played 28 times: bars 8, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24 and 22 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 104 BARS ANALYSED
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