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The French Open · Foals

EXERCISE 11 OF 25
Groove J (a two-bar phrase)
44 / 62 BARS COVERED
0 / 25 PASSED · 6 BARS LIT · IN THE PART H, CHORUS
PART B
PART D
PART H
PART M
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesOHMDBFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 8
FILL · 2
LAND · 2
RUN · 2
JOIN · 5
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The French Open on drums

62 bars, 3:21, at 74 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

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

TEMPO
74 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
62
LENGTH
3:21
DIFFICULTY
72/100

toms through bar 1 and hi-hat through bars 2-62.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 22-24, 26-28 and 38-40, and 2 more places -- 24.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    22
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
HH |--x---x---x---x---x---x---x-----|
SD |------x-------x-------x-------xx|
BD |x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|
The French Open -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

2 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 29, 49, 61 and 62.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 22 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 -- M -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  4. Through Part B -- 2 exercises, about 17 minutes.
  5. Bars 3-10 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Through Part H -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through Part H and Part M -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  8. Through Part M and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 17 minutes.
  9. and 2 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The French Open?

74 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 French Open hard to play on drums?

72 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 63 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

62 bars, about 3:21 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 22 exercises over 10 sittings, about 21 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid 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 French Open?

2 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 29, 49, 61 and 62.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 62 BARS ANALYSED