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Smooth Operator · Sade

EXERCISE 12 OF 39
Groove I -- Part I (a two-bar phrase)
82 / 127 BARS COVERED
0 / 39 PASSED · 13 BARS LIT · IN THE PART I
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
GROOVE · 12
FILL · 2
LAND · 2
RUN · 1
JOIN · 9
LINK · 9
SECTION · 3
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Smooth Operator on drums

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

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

TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
127
LENGTH
4:14
DIFFICULTY
60/100

hi-hat through bars 1-48, ride through bars 49-64, snare through bars 65-72, hi-hat through bars 73-100, ride through bars 101-108 and hi-hat through bars 109-127.

The beat

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.

    41               42
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |--x-x-----x-x---|--x-x-----x-x---|
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |x-x-r-----x-r---|--x-r-----r---r-|
BD |x-----x-x-----x-|x-----x-x-------|
Smooth Operator -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 36 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.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- G, Q -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- A -- 2 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part G -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  6. Through Part G and Part I -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through Part I and Part N -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  8. Through Part I and Part N -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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