ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Blue on drums

164 bars of 4/4 at a walking 84 BPM, 7:49 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 84 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 164
LENGTH: 7:49
DIFFICULTY: 70/100

ride through bars 1-42, hi-hat through bars 43-74, ride through bars 75-82, hi-hat through bars 83-119, snare through bars 120-121 and ride through bars 122-135, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 18-23, 34-40 and 145-146, and 1 more place -- 13% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    18                                               19
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |------------------------------------------------|x-----------------------------------------------|
RD |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----------|------x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
SD |------------x--------x-----x--------x-----x--x--|------------x--------x-----x--------x-----------|
BD |------x-----------x-----x-----x--x--------------|x-----x--x--------x-----x-----x--x--------x-----|

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

The fills

16 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 2, 4, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 26 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 62 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 -- H -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- A -- 5 exercises, about 25 minutes. Open above.
The grooves the song is built on -- W -- 2 exercises, about 20 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 6 exercises, about 32 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part H -- 6 exercises, about 35 minutes.
Through Part H and the Chorus 2 -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part M -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
Through Part M -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
and 11 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Blue?

84 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 Blue hard to play on drums?

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 69 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

164 bars, about 7:49 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 62 exercises over 19 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 The Blue?

16 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 2, 4, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 26 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 164 BARS ANALYSED