Starships · Nicki Minaj

108 bars of 4/4 at 125 BPM, about 3:27 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare and kick.

Hip Hop / ReggaePop120 to 149 BPMFour drums or fewer
TEMPO
125 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
108
LENGTH
3:27
DIFFICULTY
24/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 20% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 13-20, 53-55 and 57-60 -- 19.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 125 BPM
STARSHIPS · BAR 14
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

1 fill to learn, played 1 time: bar 12.

LOOP · 125 BPM
BAR 12 · LANDS ON BAR 13
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

108 bars across 17 sections: 49 keep time, 1 is a fill, 12 are stops and 32 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 46-52.

COUNT-IN
PART D
BREAK
CHORUS
PART B
BREAK 2
CHORUS 2
BREAK 3
CHORUS 3
9 groovesEBADI+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Starships?

125 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 Starships hard to play on drums?

24 out of 100: straightforward, and the one thing to watch is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 23 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

108 bars, about 3:27 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 19 exercises over 5 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare and kick. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

How many fills are in Starships?

1 fill to learn, played 1 time: bar 12.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 108 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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