The Only Exception · Paramore

68 bars of 6/4 -- not four -- at 138 BPM, 2:57 of playing on crash, ride, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

PopAlternative / Indie120 to 149 BPMShuffle / tripletBeginner
TEMPO
138 BPM
TIME
6/4
BARS
68
LENGTH
2:57
DIFFICULTY
37/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 31% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 30, 32 and 34, and 5 more places -- 30.8% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 138 BPM
THE ONLY EXCEPTION · BAR 30
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

6 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29 and 4 more.

LOOP · 138 BPM
BAR 21 · LANDS ON BAR 22
LOOP · 138 BPM
BAR 23 · LANDS ON BAR 24
LOOP · 138 BPM
BAR 25 · LANDS ON BAR 26
LOOP · 138 BPM
BARS 27-29 · LANDS ON BAR 30 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

2 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

68 bars across 4 sections: 11 keep time, 10 are fills, 4 are stops and 42 are silent.

COUNT-IN
PART S2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesS4S1IS2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Only Exception?

138 BPM, in 6/4, 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 Only Exception hard to play on drums?

37 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 28 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

68 bars, about 2:57 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 13 exercises over 4 sittings, about 22 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Only Exception?

6 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 68 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Paramore drum parts

EVERY PARAMORE CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →