The man who sold the world · David Bowie

125 bars of 4/4 at 116 BPM, about 4:14 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

RockPop90 to 119 BPMShuffle / triplet
TEMPO
116 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
125
LENGTH
4:14
DIFFICULTY
56/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 28% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 6, 10-18 and 22-25, and 9 more places -- 28.3% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 116 BPM
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD · BAR 23
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

6 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 4, 33, 35, 37, 64, 66 and 4 more.

LOOP · 116 BPM
BAR 4 · LANDS ON BAR 5
LOOP · 116 BPM
BAR 33 · LANDS ON BAR 34 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 116 BPM
BAR 35 · LANDS ON BAR 36 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 116 BPM
BAR 37 · LANDS ON BAR 38

2 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

125 bars across 4 sections: 99 keep time, 10 are fills, 8 are stops and 5 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 87-125.

CHORUS
OUTRO 2
4 groovesDORS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The man who sold the world?

116 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 man who sold the world hard to play on drums?

56 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 37 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

125 bars, about 4:14 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 23 exercises over 9 sittings, about 24 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 man who sold the world?

6 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 4, 33, 35, 37, 64, 66 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 125 BARS ANALYSED
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