Smooth Operator - Official - 1984 · Sade

124 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 4:07 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare and kick.

Funk / SoulJazz / Blues120 to 149 BPMFour drums or fewer
TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
124
LENGTH
4:07
DIFFICULTY
74/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 49% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 42-48, 61-65 and 71-84, and 2 more places -- 48.8% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 120 BPM
SMOOTH OPERATOR - OFFICIAL - 1984 · BAR 42
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 2 times: bars 32 and 57.

LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 32 · LANDS ON BAR 33
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 57 · LANDS ON BAR 58
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

124 bars across 15 sections: 106 keep time, 2 are fills, 2 are stops and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 86-115.

PART E
PART A
CHORUS
PART L
CHORUS 3
CHORUS 4
9 groovesIAELO+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Smooth Operator - Official - 1984?

120 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 Smooth Operator - Official - 1984 hard to play on drums?

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 65 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

124 bars, about 4:07 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 36 exercises over 12 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare and kick. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

How many fills are in Smooth Operator - Official - 1984?

2 fills to learn, played 2 times: bars 32 and 57.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 124 BARS ANALYSED
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