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Tender Surrender · Steve Vai

EXERCISE 1 OF 51
Groove F -- Part F
0 / 70 BARS COVERED
0 / 51 PASSED · 9 BARS LIT · IN THE PART F
CHORUS
PART F
PART O
PART V
OUTRO
5 groovesBFVOS5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 6
FILL · 16
LAND · 16
RUN · 1
JOIN · 4
LINK · 3
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Tender Surrender on drums

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.

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

TEMPO
66 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
70
LENGTH
4:11
DIFFICULTY
48/100

hi-hat through bars 1-42, toms through bars 43-44, ride through bars 45-58, hi-hat through bars 59-67 and ride through bars 68-70.

The beat

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.

    14
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|
HH |--x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-----x-x-------|
Tender Surrender -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 34 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 -- F, B -- 4 exercises, about 25 minutes. Open above.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus and Part F -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus and Part F -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Through Part F and Part O -- 9 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Through Part O and Part V -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Through Part O and Part V -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  8. The whole song -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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