Smooth Operator · Sade

127 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 4:14 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom and kick.

Jazz / BluesFunk / Soul120 to 149 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
127
LENGTH
4:14
DIFFICULTY
60/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 17% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 41-48 and 109-122 -- 17.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 120 BPM
SMOOTH OPERATOR · BARS 41-42
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 3 times: bars 55, 56 and 64.

LOOP · 120 BPM
BARS 55-56 · LANDS ON BAR 57 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 64 · LANDS ON BAR 65
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

127 bars across 10 sections: 111 keep time and 3 are fills. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-37.

CHORUS
PART G
PART I
PART N
PART P
PART Q
PART S
PART I
OUTRO
7 groovesBGQIS+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Smooth Operator?

120 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 Smooth Operator hard to play on drums?

60 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 54 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

127 bars, about 4:14 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, ride, hi-hat, snare, high 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 Smooth Operator?

2 fills to learn, played 3 times: bars 55, 56 and 64.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 127 BARS ANALYSED
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