The Winner Takes It All · ABBA

119 bars of 4/4 at 123 BPM, about 3:52 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

PopFunk / Soul120 to 149 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
123 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
119
LENGTH
3:52
DIFFICULTY
56/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 85% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 6-20, 22-28 and 30-36, and 7 more places -- 85.1% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 123 BPM
THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL · BARS 6-7
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

6 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 21, 29, 37, 53, 61, 86 and 4 more.

LOOP · 123 BPM
BAR 21 · LANDS ON BAR 22
LOOP · 123 BPM
BAR 29 · LANDS ON BAR 30 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 123 BPM
BAR 53 · LANDS ON BAR 54
LOOP · 123 BPM
BAR 86 · LANDS ON BAR 87

2 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

119 bars across 4 sections: 87 keep time, 10 are fills, 1 is a stop and 18 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 5-20.

CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
3 groovesBS3S1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Winner Takes It All?

123 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth 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 Winner Takes It All hard to play on drums?

56 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 48 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

119 bars, about 3:52 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 10 exercises over 3 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Winner Takes It All?

6 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 21, 29, 37, 53, 61, 86 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 119 BARS ANALYSED
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