The Chain · Fleetwood Mac

116 bars, 6:11, at 75 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.

RockJazz / BluesUnder 90 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
116
LENGTH
6:11
DIFFICULTY
46/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 24% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-16, 27-31 and 33-39 -- 24.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 75 BPM
THE CHAIN · BAR 1
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

6 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 19, 20, 24, 43, 44, 48 and 6 more.

LOOP · 75 BPM
BARS 19-20 · LANDS ON BAR 21 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 24 · LANDS ON BAR 25 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 52 · LANDS ON BAR 53
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 54 · LANDS ON BAR 55

2 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

116 bars across 7 sections: 91 keep time, 12 are fills, 2 are stops and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 81-102.

CHORUS
PART B
CHORUS 2
PART B
PART P
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesABSPUFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Chain?

75 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 The Chain hard to play on drums?

46 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 0 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

116 bars, about 6:11 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 29 exercises over 8 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 Chain?

6 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 19, 20, 24, 43, 44, 48 and 6 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 116 BARS ANALYSED
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