← SONGS

The Imperial March · Galactic Empire

EXERCISE 6 OF 58
Groove A -- Part A
26 / 79 BARS COVERED
0 / 58 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART A
PART A
PART C
CHORUS
PART H
PART M
PART Q
PART V
PART C
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesEHVQC+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 15
LAND · 15
RUN · 2
JOIN · 7
LINK · 4
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Imperial March on drums

79 bars of 4/4 at a walking 100 BPM, 3:03 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

72 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO
100 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
79
LENGTH
3:03
DIFFICULTY
72/100

hi-hat through bars 1-24, toms through bars 25-28, snare through bars 29-34, toms through bars 35-37, snare through bars 38-40 and toms through bars 41-48, and 4 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 9-11, 13-15 and 53-55, and 2 more places -- 19% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    58
    1...............2...............3...............4...............
HH |o---------------o---------------o---------------o---------------|
SD |--------x--x-x------------------x-------x--x-x-------x--x-------|
BD |x---------------x-------x--x-x------------------x--x-------x-x--|
The Imperial March -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 4, 8, 12, 16, 18, 19 and 30 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 42 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 -- E -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- C -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- Q -- 1 exercise, about 14 minutes.
  4. Through Part A and Part C -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
  5. Bars 3-9 -- 5 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  6. Bars 17-73 -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  7. Bars 9-79 -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Bars 13-21 -- 5 exercises, about 35 minutes.
  9. and 6 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Imperial March?

100 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 Imperial March hard to play on drums?

72 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 59 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

79 bars, about 3:03 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 42 exercises over 14 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in The Imperial March?

15 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 4, 8, 12, 16, 18, 19 and 30 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 79 BARS ANALYSED