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Swamp Song · Tool

EXERCISE 11 OF 50
Groove E
35 / 115 BARS COVERED
0 / 50 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE PART D
PART D
CHORUS
PART D
CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
PART Q
OUTRO
BREAK
9 groovesS13GABDQ+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 10
LAND · 10
RUN · 1
JOIN · 9
LINK · 2
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Swamp Song on drums

115 bars of 6/4 -- not four -- at 126 BPM, 5:22 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
126 BPM
TIME
6/4
BARS
115
LENGTH
5:22
DIFFICULTY
53/100

hi-hat through bars 3-14, ride through bars 15-23, hi-hat through bars 24-31, ride through bars 32-44, hi-hat through bars 45-48 and ride through bars 49-52, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 7-9, 12-13 and 24-26, and 2 more places -- 15.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    12
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a5e+a6e+a
HH |o-x-x-x-o-x-x-o-x-x-o-x-|
SD |--------x-----------x---|
BD |x---x-x-----x-x---x-----|
Swamp Song -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

10 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 2, 14, 18, 19, 23, 31 and 12 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 39 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 -- D, G -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  3. Through Part C and Part D -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Through Part D and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes. Open above.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part J -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Bars 18-24 -- 4 exercises, about 17 minutes.
  7. Bars 28-37 -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  8. Bars 37-46 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Swamp Song?

126 BPM, in 6/4, 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 Swamp Song hard to play on drums?

53 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 46 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

115 bars, about 5:22 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 39 exercises over 12 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in Swamp Song?

10 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 2, 14, 18, 19, 23, 31 and 12 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 115 BARS ANALYSED