Sultans Of Swing · Dire Straits

215 bars of 4/4 at 148 BPM, about 5:47 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

RockJazz / Blues120 to 149 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
148 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
215
LENGTH
5:47
DIFFICULTY
75/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 9% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2, 4 and 6, and 16 more places -- 9.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 148 BPM
SULTANS OF SWING · BAR 4
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

11 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 27, 35, 47, 63, 73, 81 and 13 more.

LOOP · 148 BPM
BAR 27 · LANDS ON BAR 28 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 148 BPM
BAR 35 · LANDS ON BAR 36 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 148 BPM
BAR 47 · LANDS ON BAR 48 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 148 BPM
BAR 63 · LANDS ON BAR 64

7 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

215 bars across 26 sections: 150 keep time and 19 are fills. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-16.

CHORUS
PART U
CHORUS 3
PART AC
PART K
PART H
VERSE
11 groovesBKACHO+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Sultans Of Swing?

148 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 Sultans Of Swing hard to play on drums?

75 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 38 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

215 bars, about 5:47 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 86 exercises over 30 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 Sultans Of Swing?

11 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 27, 35, 47, 63, 73, 81 and 13 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 215 BARS ANALYSED
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