ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Slow Dance on drums

80 bars of 4/4 at a walking 85 BPM, 3:46 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO: 85 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 80
LENGTH: 3:46
DIFFICULTY: 55/100

hi-hat through bars 3-30, toms through bars 31-34, hi-hat through bars 35-66, toms through bars 67-68, hi-hat through bars 69-76 and toms through bars 77-80.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 7-23, 35-43 and 45-47, and 2 more places -- 60.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    7
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-gg----x---|
BD |x------xx-x-----|

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

The fills

3 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 29, 30, 66, 78 and 79.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 20 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 -- C -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part B and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part I -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part I and the Chorus 2 -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and Part L -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
The whole song -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Slow Dance?

85 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 Slow Dance hard to play on drums?

55 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 34 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

80 bars, about 3:46 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 20 exercises over 7 sittings, about 25 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 Slow Dance?

3 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 29, 30, 66, 78 and 79.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 80 BARS ANALYSED