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The Bends · Radiohead

EXERCISE 23 OF 41
Join Part F to Part J (bars 23-25)
70 / 83 BARS COVERED
0 / 41 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART F, PART J
PART C
PART D
PART F
PART J
PART N
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
6 groovesPCNJD+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 8
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 3
JOIN · 7
LINK · 3
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Bends on drums

83 bars of 4/4 at a walking 90 BPM, 3:41 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

47 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how often it moves around the kit.

TEMPO
90 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
83
LENGTH
3:41
DIFFICULTY
47/100

ride through bars 1-24, hi-hat through bars 25-32, ride through bars 33-38, hi-hat through bars 39-43, toms through bars 44-45 and hi-hat through bars 46-53, and 4 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 46-52, 67-73 and 75-77, and 1 more place -- 24.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    47
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|
SD |----x--x----x---|
BD |x-------x-x-----|
The Bends -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 1, 2, 10, 11, 20, 24 and 8 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 33 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 -- P, C -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- N -- 5 exercises, about 36 minutes.
  3. Through Part C and Part D -- 4 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  4. Bars 19-33 -- 5 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  5. Through Part J -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Bars 23-46 -- 7 exercises, about 31 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through Part N and the Chorus -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. The whole song -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Bends?

90 BPM, in 4/4, 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 The Bends hard to play on drums?

47 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how often it moves around the kit. The beat itself is 29 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

83 bars, about 3:41 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 8 sittings, about 29 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 The Bends?

7 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 1, 2, 10, 11, 20, 24 and 8 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 83 BARS ANALYSED