ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Visitant on drums

164 bars, 11:25, at 55 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 55 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 164
LENGTH: 11:25
DIFFICULTY: 79/100

hi-hat through bars 1-6, ride through bars 7-8, kick and crashes through bars 9-11, toms through bars 12-15, silence through bars 16-17 and hi-hat through bars 18-28, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 35, 37 and 39-46, and 3 more places -- 12% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    39                               40
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------------------------------|x-----------------------------x-|
RD |--------------------------------|------------x-g-g-x-g-g-x-g-g---|
HH |----o---o---o---o---o---o---o---|----o---o-----------------------|
SD |x-----------x-----------x-------|x---x---x---x-----x-----x-------|
BD |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x---|

The Visitant -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

10 fills to learn, played 38 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 32 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 59 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- Q -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- N -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part N -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Bars 1-45 -- 5 exercises, about 22 minutes.
Through Part Q and Part U -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part U and Part W -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
Through Part W and Part AD -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
and 13 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Visitant?

55 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 Visitant hard to play on drums?

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 79 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

164 bars, about 11:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 59 exercises over 21 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 Visitant?

10 fills to learn, played 38 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 32 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 164 BARS ANALYSED