The Rain Song · Led Zeppelin

73 bars, 4:10, at 70 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

RockCountry / FolkUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
70 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
73
LENGTH
4:10
DIFFICULTY
44/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 7% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 11, 20 and 23, and 2 more places -- 7.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 70 BPM
THE RAIN SONG · BAR 11
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

4 fills to learn, played 7 times: bars 37, 39, 40, 41, 43, 63 and 1 more.

LOOP · 70 BPM
BAR 37 · LANDS ON BAR 38
LOOP · 70 BPM
BARS 39-41 · LANDS ON BAR 42 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 70 BPM
BAR 43 · LANDS ON BAR 44
LOOP · 70 BPM
BARS 63-64 · LANDS ON BAR 65 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

73 bars across 8 sections: 48 keep time, 7 are fills, 2 are stops and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 44-55.

COUNT-IN
PART B
PART E
PART M
PART F
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesQEAKBF+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Rain Song?

70 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is The Rain Song hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with how fine the subdivision is the part that decides it. The beat itself is 10 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

73 bars, about 4:10 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 31 exercises over 9 sittings, about 26 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 Rain Song?

4 fills to learn, played 7 times: bars 37, 39, 40, 41, 43, 63 and 1 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 73 BARS ANALYSED
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