Tender Surrender · Steve Vai

70 bars, 4:11, at 66 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.

ProgressiveRockUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
66 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
70
LENGTH
4:11
DIFFICULTY
48/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 13% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 14-18, 22-24 and 26 -- 13% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 66 BPM
TENDER SURRENDER · BAR 14
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

16 fills to learn, played 34 times: bars 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 12 and 28 more.

LOOP · 66 BPM
BAR 1 · LANDS ON BAR 2 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 66 BPM
BARS 3-5 · LANDS ON BAR 6 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 66 BPM
BARS 12-13 · LANDS ON BAR 14 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 66 BPM
BAR 21 · LANDS ON BAR 22

12 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

70 bars across 6 sections: 31 keep time, 34 are fills, 1 is a stop and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 15-20.

CHORUS
PART F
PART O
PART V
OUTRO
5 groovesBFVOS5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Tender Surrender?

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

Is Tender Surrender hard to play on drums?

48 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 22 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

70 bars, about 4:11 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 34 exercises over 9 sittings, about 26 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 Tender Surrender?

16 fills to learn, played 34 times: bars 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 12 and 28 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 70 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Steve Vai drum parts

EVERY STEVE VAI CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →