ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play THE FIRST TEST on drums

67 bars of 4/4 at 140 BPM, about 1:55 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

83 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO: 140 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 67
LENGTH: 1:55
DIFFICULTY: 83/100

snare through bars 1-2, toms through bars 3-15, hi-hat through bars 16-28, snare through bars 29-30, hi-hat through bars 31-34 and snare through bars 35-37, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 19-20, 23-24 and 27-28, and 1 more place -- 10.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    19                                               20
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------x-----x------|
HH |-----o-----o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-----o--o--o--o|--o--o-----o--o--o--o--o--o---------------------|
SD |--------x--------------------------x------------|--------x--------------------x------------------|
BD |-----------------x-----------x-----------x-----x|-----------------x-----------------x-----x------|

THE FIRST TEST -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

3 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 5 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 25 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 -- M -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- A -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 16 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- K (a two-bar phrase) -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes. Open above.
Through the Chorus and Part M -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part M and Part V -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part V and Part AA -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part AA and Part AE -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
and 3 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is THE FIRST TEST?

140 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 FIRST TEST hard to play on drums?

83 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 74 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

67 bars, about 1:55 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 25 exercises over 11 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 FIRST TEST?

3 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 5 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 67 BARS ANALYSED