ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Sophie on drums

193 bars of 4/4 at a walking 79 BPM, 9:51 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO: 79 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 193
LENGTH: 9:51
DIFFICULTY: 66/100

silence through bars 1-6, snare through bars 7-10, ride through bars 11-15, toms through bars 16-17, ride through bars 18-21 and toms through bars 22-25, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 44-46, 50-52 and 57, and 1 more place -- 4.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    45
    1.......2.......3.......4.......5.......6.......7.......
CC |x-------------------------------------------------------|
HH |----x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|
SD |--------x---------------x---------------x---------------|
BD |x-----x---------x-----x---------x-----x---------x-----x-|

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

The fills

14 fills to learn, played 44 times: bars 7, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 38 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 67 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 -- AK -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- CI -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- DC -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part F -- 6 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through Part F and Part AD -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Bars 32-62 -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
Through Part AD and Part AL -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes. Open above.
Bars 48-57 -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
and 15 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Sophie?

79 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 Sophie hard to play on drums?

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on 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?

193 bars, about 9:51 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 67 exercises over 23 sittings, about 25 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 Sophie?

14 fills to learn, played 44 times: bars 7, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 38 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 193 BARS ANALYSED