ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Stella Gemella on drums

83 bars, 4:41, at 71 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

91 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO: 71 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 83
LENGTH: 4:41
DIFFICULTY: 91/100

The time is kept on the hi-hat the whole way through.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 2, 4 and 6, and 6 more places -- 39.8% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    40                                                               41
    1...............2...............3...............4............... 1...............2...............3...............4...............
RD |----------------x-------------------------------x---------------|----------------x------------------------------x----------------|
HH |x-------x-------x-------x-----o-o---------------x-------x----o--|x------x--------x-------x---o--o---------------x-------x----o--x|
SD |--------x-------x-x-----x---------------x-------xx------x-------|-------x--------xx------x--------------x-------x-x-----x--------|
BD |x-------x------------x--x-----x-x-------------x-----------------|x------x-------------x--x---x--x-----x-x-----x--------------x--x|
HF |----------------------------------------x-----------------------|---------------------------------------x------------------------|

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

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 65, 69, 77, 82 and 83.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 23 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 -- B -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 1 exercise, about 20 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part D -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part D -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part D and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 19 minutes. Open above.
Through the Chorus 2 -- 1 exercise, about 22 minutes.
Through the Outro -- 1 exercise, about 23 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and the Outro -- 5 exercises, about 24 minutes.
and 2 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Stella Gemella?

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

Is Stella Gemella hard to play on drums?

91 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 78 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

83 bars, about 4:41 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 23 exercises over 10 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 Stella Gemella?

4 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 65, 69, 77, 82 and 83.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 83 BARS ANALYSED