ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Black on drums

81 bars, 5:23, at 60 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

64 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO: 60 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 81
LENGTH: 5:23
DIFFICULTY: 64/100

hi-hat through bars 1-5, snare through bars 6-10, hi-hat through bars 11-18, silence through bars 19-20, hi-hat through bars 21-23 and snare through bars 24-25, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 70-72, 74-76 and 78-80 -- 12.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    70                                               71
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |xxxxxxxxxxxxx-----------xxxxxxxxxxxxx-----xxx---|xxxxxxxxxxxxx-----xxx---xxx---------x-x-x-x-x-x-|

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

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 5, 39, 43, 47, 67, 69 and 2 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 40 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 -- AJ, I -- 3 exercises, about 31 minutes. Open above.
The grooves the song is built on -- S -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
Through Part E -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part E -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Bars 1-19 -- 3 exercises, about 14 minutes.
Through Part K and the Break 3 -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
and 7 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Black?

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

Is The Black hard to play on drums?

64 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 46 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

81 bars, about 5:23 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 40 exercises over 15 sittings, about 23 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 Black?

7 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 5, 39, 43, 47, 67, 69 and 2 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 81 BARS ANALYSED