ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Something greater on drums

75 bars at 212 BPM -- fast, and 1:25 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO: 212 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 75
LENGTH: 1:25
DIFFICULTY: 68/100

silence through bars 1-16, toms through bars 17-57, snare through bars 58-61, hi-hat through bars 62-63, snare through bars 64-65 and hi-hat through bars 66-67, and 4 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 41-43, 45-51 and 53-55 -- 20.3% 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
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------x-----------------------|x-------x-----------------------|
RD |----------------x----x-----x----|--------------------------------|
HH |--------------------------------|----------------o-------o-------|
SD |----------------x----x-----x----|----------------x---x---x---x---|
BD |x-x-x---x-x-x-------------------|x-x-x---x-x-x-------------------|

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

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 40, 57, 63, 71 and 75.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 26 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 -- G, D -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- C -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part C and Part D -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through Part D and the Outro -- 4 exercises, about 16 minutes.
Through Part D and the Outro -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 3 exercises, about 14 minutes. Open above.
Through the Outro 2 -- 1 exercise, about 20 minutes.
and 2 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Something greater?

212 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. At that speed the thirty-second notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Something greater hard to play on drums?

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 66 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

75 bars, about 1:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 26 exercises over 10 sittings, about 23 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in Something greater?

4 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 40, 57, 63, 71 and 75.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 75 BARS ANALYSED