← SONGS

Stairway to Heaven · Led Zeppelin

EXERCISE 6 OF 54
Groove C
33 / 124 BARS COVERED
0 / 54 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE BREAK, OUTRO
COUNT-IN
BREAK
PART E
PART K
PART D
PART T
PART M
OUTRO
8 groovesS1RDME+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 11
LAND · 11
RUN · 2
JOIN · 8
LINK · 3
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Stairway to Heaven on drums

124 bars, 6:59, at 71 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

56 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
71 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
124
LENGTH
6:59
DIFFICULTY
56/100

silence through bars 1-42, hi-hat through bars 43-51, ride through bars 52-59, hi-hat through bars 60-69, toms through bars 70-77 and hi-hat through bars 78-110, and 2 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 79 and 99-110 -- 16% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    99               100
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |--X--X-gX--X-gXg|----Xg------Xg--|
BD |x--x--x--x--x---|x-x----xx-x----x|
Stairway to Heaven -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

11 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 42, 57, 58, 59, 66, 67 and 18 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 42 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.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- R -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- D, E -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Through the Break and Part E -- 5 exercises, about 25 minutes. Open above.
  4. Through Part E -- 2 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  5. Through Part K -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  6. Bars 51-90 -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  7. Bars 53-92 -- 6 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  8. Through Part D -- 6 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  9. and 5 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Stairway to Heaven?

71 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Stairway to Heaven hard to play on drums?

56 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 62 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

124 bars, about 6:59 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 42 exercises over 13 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high 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 Stairway to Heaven?

11 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 42, 57, 58, 59, 66, 67 and 18 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 124 BARS ANALYSED