ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Slam on drums

81 bars of 4/4 at 130 BPM, about 2:31 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

89 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO: 130 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 81
LENGTH: 2:31
DIFFICULTY: 89/100

kick and crashes through bar 1, ride through bars 2-11, hi-hat through bars 12-27, ride through bars 28-36, hi-hat through bars 37-48 and snare through bars 49-56, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 16-22 -- 8.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    16                               17
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
RD |--------------------------------|----------------------------x-x-|
HH |----o---o---o---o---o---o---o---|o---o---o---o---o---o--------o-o|
SD |x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|x---x---x---x---x---x---xxxx----|
BD |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|

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

The fills

9 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 1, 5, 6, 7, 15, 23 and 21 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 38 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 -- N -- 1 exercise, about 22 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- Y -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
Through the Outro 2 -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- Q -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part L and Part N -- 8 exercises, about 34 minutes.
Through Part N and Part Q -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
Through Part Q and Part U -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Bars 25-37 -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
and 5 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Slam?

130 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 Slam hard to play on drums?

89 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 95 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

81 bars, about 2:31 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 13 sittings, about 24 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 Slam?

9 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 1, 5, 6, 7, 15, 23 and 21 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 81 BARS ANALYSED