ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Sphinx on drums

96 bars of 4/4 at a walking 97 BPM, 3:56 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO: 97 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 96
LENGTH: 3:56
DIFFICULTY: 72/100

toms through bars 1-5, snare through bars 6-13, hi-hat through bars 14-32, toms through bars 33-34, hi-hat through bars 35-52 and snare through bars 53-54, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 7-12, 22 and 24, and 3 more places -- 18.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    7                                                8
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|x-----------------------------------------------|
RD |------------------------------------------------|------X-----------------X-----------------------|
SD |------------x--------g-g------------x--------x--|------------f-----------------------x-x-x-x-x-x-|
BD |x-----------------x-----x--------x-----x--x-----|------x-----------x-----x-----x-----x-x-x-x-x-x-|

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

The fills

13 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 3, 4, 13, 21, 23, 25 and 12 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 47 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 -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- X, J -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Bars 3-14 -- 5 exercises, about 21 minutes. Open above.
Through Part E and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part J -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part J and the Chorus 2 -- 5 exercises, about 19 minutes.
Through Part P and Part J -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and Part P -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
and 6 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Sphinx?

97 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 Sphinx hard to play on drums?

72 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 64 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

96 bars, about 3:56 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 47 exercises over 14 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Sphinx?

13 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 3, 4, 13, 21, 23, 25 and 12 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 96 BARS ANALYSED