The Black Page 2 · Frank Zappa

175 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 5:50 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Funk / SoulProgressive120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
175
LENGTH
5:50
DIFFICULTY
73/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 26% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2-46 -- 25.7% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 120 BPM
THE BLACK PAGE 2 · BAR 4
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

10 fills to learn, played 25 times: bars 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 and 19 more.

LOOP · 120 BPM
BARS 48-54 · LANDS ON BAR 55 · PLAYED 7 TIMES
LOOP · 120 BPM
BARS 57-58 · LANDS ON BAR 59 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 120 BPM
BARS 60-62 · LANDS ON BAR 63 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 65 · LANDS ON BAR 66

6 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

175 bars across 9 sections: 130 keep time, 25 are fills and 5 are stops. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-46.

CHORUS
PART C
PART U
PART Y
PART BG
PART BE
OUTRO 2
9 groovesBCMYBEC+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Black Page 2?

120 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 The Black Page 2 hard to play on drums?

73 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 36 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

175 bars, about 5:50 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 44 exercises over 15 sittings, about 24 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 The Black Page 2?

10 fills to learn, played 25 times: bars 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 and 19 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 175 BARS ANALYSED
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