← SONGS

Take On Me a-ha · A-Ha

EXERCISE 1 OF 56
Groove C -- Chorus (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 174 BARS COVERED
0 / 56 PASSED · 33 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2, OUTRO
CHORUS
PART J
PART F
PART R
CHORUS 2
PART O
PART X
OUTRO
14 groovesCOFRJ+9Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 15
FILL · 3
LAND · 3
RUN · 4
JOIN · 15
LINK · 4
SECTION · 11
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Take On Me a-ha on drums

174 bars at 165 BPM -- fast, and 4:14 of it without a break -- on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
165 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
174
LENGTH
4:14
DIFFICULTY
47/100

snare through bars 1-7, hi-hat through bars 8-42, snare through bars 43-49, hi-hat through bars 50-70, snare through bars 71-77 and hi-hat through bars 78-92, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 15-21, 97-107 and 109-112, and 1 more place -- 20.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    15               16
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |--------o-------|x---------------|
SD |----x-------x---|----x-------x---|
BD |x-x---x-------x-|--x-----x-------|
Take On Me a-ha -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 64, 119, 120 and 148.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 52 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 -- C, F -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  3. Bars 6-15 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part J -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  6. Through Part J and Part L -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Bars 45-69 -- 8 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  8. Bars 71-85 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 6 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Take On Me a-ha?

165 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Take On Me a-ha hard to play on drums?

47 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 24 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

174 bars, about 4:14 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 52 exercises over 14 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, mid 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 Take On Me a-ha?

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 64, 119, 120 and 148.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 174 BARS ANALYSED