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Solar Winds · Devin Townsend

EXERCISE 5 OF 86
Groove S -- Part S (a two-bar phrase)
26 / 263 BARS COVERED
0 / 86 PASSED · 18 BARS LIT · IN THE PART S
PART S
PART V
PART Y
CHORUS
PART AJ
PART AL
PART AU
21 groovesADALYSV+16Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 20
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 5
JOIN · 18
LINK · 9
SECTION · 19
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Solar Winds on drums

263 bars of 4/4 at 140 BPM, about 7:04 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
140 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
263
LENGTH
7:04
DIFFICULTY
74/100

silence through bars 1-5, ride through bars 6-15, kick and crashes through bars 16-26, toms through bars 27-33, snare through bars 34-43 and ride through bars 44-74, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 179, 181 and 183, and 6 more places -- 9.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    195                                              196
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |g-----------g-----------g-----------x-----------|------------g-----------g-----------g-----------|
SD |------------------------------------x-----------|------------------------------------------------|
BD |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----------------|------------x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
Solar Winds -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 33, 99, 100, 101, 102, 127 and 4 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 78 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 -- AL -- 4 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- S -- 2 exercises, about 20 minutes. Open above.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- V -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Bars 5-39 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through Part D and Part E -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through Part E and Part H -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  7. Through Part H and Part J -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Bars 50-79 -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 15 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Solar Winds?

140 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 Solar Winds hard to play on drums?

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 46 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

263 bars, about 7:04 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 78 exercises over 23 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Solar Winds?

7 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 33, 99, 100, 101, 102, 127 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 263 BARS ANALYSED