ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Taking Off on drums

97 bars of 4/4 at 112 BPM, about 3:28 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

69 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 112 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 97
LENGTH: 3:28
DIFFICULTY: 69/100

hi-hat through bars 2-5, toms through bars 6-13, kick and crashes through bars 14-17, hi-hat through bars 18-26, toms through bars 27-37 and hi-hat through bars 38-48, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 6-8, 10-12 and 27-29, and 9 more places -- 39.1% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    6                                7
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------x-------x-------x-------|--------x-------x-----x-----x---|
SD |--------x-----x---------x-------|--------x---------------x-------|
T1 |------------------------------X-|--------------------------------|
T2 |--------------------------------|X-X-----------------------------|
FT |--------------------------------|----X---------------------------|
BD |--------------------x-------x---|------x---------x-----x-----x---|

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

The fills

8 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 44, 48, 56, 60, 68, 72 and 2 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 28 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 -- E, G -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- M -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 32 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
Through the Chorus and the Break -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and Part R -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
Through Part R and the Chorus 3 -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part R and the Chorus 3 -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
and 3 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Taking Off?

112 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Taking Off hard to play on drums?

69 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 47 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

97 bars, about 3:28 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 28 exercises over 11 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Taking Off?

8 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 44, 48, 56, 60, 68, 72 and 2 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 97 BARS ANALYSED