The Man Who Sold The World · David Bowie

122 bars of 4/4 at 118 BPM, about 4:04 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

RockPop90 to 119 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
118 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
122
LENGTH
4:04
DIFFICULTY
39/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 71% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 5-6, 9-19 and 21-31, and 19 more places -- 70.6% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 118 BPM
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD · BAR 10
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

8 fills to learn, played 9 times: bars 35, 55, 65, 81, 89, 93 and 3 more.

LOOP · 118 BPM
BAR 35 · LANDS ON BAR 36 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 118 BPM
BAR 55 · LANDS ON BAR 56
LOOP · 118 BPM
BAR 65 · LANDS ON BAR 66
LOOP · 118 BPM
BAR 89 · LANDS ON BAR 90

4 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

122 bars across 2 sections: 103 keep time, 9 are fills, 7 are stops and 3 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 106-122.

OUTRO
2 groovesES1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Man Who Sold The World?

118 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 Man Who Sold The World hard to play on drums?

39 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 13 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

122 bars, about 4:04 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 16 exercises over 5 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, 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 Man Who Sold The World?

8 fills to learn, played 9 times: bars 35, 55, 65, 81, 89, 93 and 3 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 122 BARS ANALYSED
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