Son Of A Gun · Nirvana

114 bars at 168 BPM -- fast, and 2:43 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, snare, high tom, mid tom and kick.

Alternative / IndieRock150 BPM and up
TEMPO
168 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
114
LENGTH
2:43
DIFFICULTY
66/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 62% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 19-24, 27-32 and 43-48, and 5 more places -- 61.8% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 168 BPM
SON OF A GUN · BAR 19
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

5 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 5, 17, 25, 33, 41, 49 and 4 more.

LOOP · 168 BPM
BAR 5 · LANDS ON BAR 6
LOOP · 168 BPM
BAR 17 · LANDS ON BAR 18 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 168 BPM
BAR 25 · LANDS ON BAR 26 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 168 BPM
BAR 33 · LANDS ON BAR 34 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

1 more fill is written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

114 bars across 7 sections: 91 keep time, 10 are fills, 1 is a stop and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 50-64.

PART C
CHORUS
PART C
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
3 groovesFCS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Son Of A Gun?

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

Is Son Of A Gun hard to play on drums?

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 57 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

114 bars, about 2:43 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 15 exercises over 4 sittings, about 30 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, snare, high tom, mid 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 Son Of A Gun?

5 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 5, 17, 25, 33, 41, 49 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 114 BARS ANALYSED
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