← SONGS

The Dark Side of the Moon (Side 1) · Pink Floyd

EXERCISE 17 OF 73
Run M1 · Part M (bars 24-37)
265 / 373 BARS COVERED
0 / 73 PASSED · 14 BARS LIT · IN THE PART M
PART A
PART M
CHORUS
PART AJ
18 groovesAGBABCAJA+13Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 16
FILL · 8
LAND · 8
RUN · 4
JOIN · 16
LINK · 6
SECTION · 14
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Dark Side of the Moon (Side 1) on drums

373 bars, 23:28, at 64 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.

52 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how fine the subdivision is.

TEMPO
64 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
373
LENGTH
23:28
DIFFICULTY
52/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-7, toms through bars 8-17, hi-hat through bars 18-227, snare through bars 228-232, silence through bars 233-236 and snare through bars 237-243, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 63-225 -- 46.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    63
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
HH |x---------------x---------------|
FT |x---------------x---------------|
The Dark Side of the Moon (Side 1) -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

8 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 30 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 64 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 -- AG, BA, BC -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  2. Through Part M and Part X -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  3. Through Part A -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  4. Through Part A -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  5. Bars 20-47 -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  6. Through Part M -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Through Part M and Part X -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
  8. Through Part X and Part O -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  9. and 11 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Dark Side of the Moon (Side 1)?

64 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 Dark Side of the Moon (Side 1) hard to play on drums?

52 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how fine the subdivision is. The beat itself is 6 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

373 bars, about 23:28 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 64 exercises over 19 sittings, about 25 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 Dark Side of the Moon (Side 1)?

8 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 30 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 373 BARS ANALYSED