The Little Drummer Boy · Christmas

83 bars of 4/4 at 116 BPM, about 2:52 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

90 to 119 BPM
TEMPO
116 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
83
LENGTH
2:52
DIFFICULTY
43/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 67% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-5, 7-9 and 11-13, and 15 more places -- 67.1% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 116 BPM
THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY · BAR 1
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

83 bars across 6 sections: 60 keep time, 16 are stops and 7 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 78-83.

CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART B
OUTRO
4 groovesABS5S2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Little Drummer Boy?

116 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth 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 Little Drummer Boy hard to play on drums?

43 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 27 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

83 bars, about 2:52 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 8 exercises over 2 sittings, about 29 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 83 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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