The Show Must Go On · Queen

83 bars of 4/4 at a walking 84 BPM, 3:54 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

RockPopUnder 90 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
84 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
83
LENGTH
3:54
DIFFICULTY
68/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 35% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 23, 25 and 32-36, and 8 more places -- 34.7% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 84 BPM
THE SHOW MUST GO ON · BAR 23
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

5 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 30 and 6 more.

LOOP · 84 BPM
BARS 17-21 · LANDS ON BAR 22 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 84 BPM
BAR 30 · LANDS ON BAR 31 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 84 BPM
BAR 45 · LANDS ON BAR 46
LOOP · 84 BPM
BARS 61-62 · LANDS ON BAR 63 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

1 more fill is written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

83 bars across 10 sections: 49 keep time, 12 are fills, 2 are stops and 11 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 33-44.

PART S2
PART A
PART J
CHORUS
PART J
CHORUS 2
PART T
8 groovesKJAS2T+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Show Must Go On?

84 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 Show Must Go On hard to play on drums?

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 60 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

83 bars, about 3:54 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 23 exercises over 8 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, 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 Show Must Go On?

5 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 30 and 6 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 83 BARS ANALYSED
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