Skeleton · Bloc Party

138 bars at 177 BPM -- fast, and 3:07 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Alternative / IndieRock150 BPM and up
TEMPO
177 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
138
LENGTH
3:07
DIFFICULTY
67/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 24% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 19-20, 22-24 and 27-28, and 11 more places -- 24.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 177 BPM
SKELETON · BAR 20
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

7 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 17, 33, 49, 53, 57, 61 and 12 more.

LOOP · 177 BPM
BAR 17 · LANDS ON BAR 18
LOOP · 177 BPM
BAR 33 · LANDS ON BAR 34
LOOP · 177 BPM
BAR 49 · LANDS ON BAR 50 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 177 BPM
BAR 53 · LANDS ON BAR 54 · PLAYED 6 TIMES

3 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

138 bars across 8 sections: 88 keep time, 18 are fills, 5 are stops and 15 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 18-32.

PART S1
PART E
CHORUS
PART E
CHORUS 2
PART M
OUTRO
5 groovesJES1MOFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Skeleton?

177 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Skeleton hard to play on drums?

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 37 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

138 bars, about 3:07 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 29 exercises over 11 sittings, about 21 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Skeleton?

7 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 17, 33, 49, 53, 57, 61 and 12 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 138 BARS ANALYSED
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