SOS · ABBA

80 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 2:40 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

PopFunk / Soul120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
80
LENGTH
2:40
DIFFICULTY
39/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 47% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 5-14, 35-39 and 45, and 3 more places -- 46.6% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 120 BPM
SOS · BAR 10
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

1 fill to learn, played 2 times: bars 20 and 50.

LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

80 bars across 11 sections: 44 keep time, 2 are fills, 3 are stops and 22 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 5-14.

COUNT-IN
CHORUS
PART C
PART S4
CHORUS 2
PART E
PART C
PART S8
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesBCS4EF+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is SOS?

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 SOS hard to play on drums?

39 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 37 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

80 bars, about 2:40 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 17 exercises over 5 sittings, about 23 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 SOS?

1 fill to learn, played 2 times: bars 20 and 50.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 80 BARS ANALYSED
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