The Mule · Deep Purple

171 bars of 4/4 at 137 BPM, about 5:00 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

82 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO

137 BPM

TIME

4/4

BARS

171

LENGTH

5:00

DIFFICULTY

82/100

hi-hat through bars 2-6, toms through bars 7-54, hi-hat through bars 55-57, toms through bars 58-89, hi-hat through bars 90-96 and toms through bars 97-171.

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 11-53, 58-88 and 98-141, and 5 more places -- 78.8% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    11
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|
SD |------x-x-x-x-----------------------------------|
T1 |------------------------x--x--------------------|
T2 |------------------------------x--x--------------|
FT |---------------------------------------x--x-----|
BD |x-----x---x-------x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
HF |------------x-----------x-----------x-----------|

9 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 7, 8, 9, 10, 54, 55 and 16 more.

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 -- G -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
2. Through Part C -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes. Open above.
3. Through Part C and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
4. Through Part C and the Chorus -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
5. Through the Chorus and the Outro -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
6. The whole song -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
7. Through the Outro 2 -- 6 exercises, about 32 minutes.
8. Through the Outro 2 -- 6 exercises, about 26 minutes.