Then Came The Last Days Of May · Blue Öyster Cult

66 bars, 3:24, at 75 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

RockProgressiveUnder 90 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
66
LENGTH
3:24
DIFFICULTY
71/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 15% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2, 4 and 10, and 6 more places -- 15.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 75 BPM
THEN CAME THE LAST DAYS OF MAY · BAR 2
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

5 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 34, 38, 44, 56, 59, 61 and 4 more.

LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 34 · LANDS ON BAR 35 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 38 · LANDS ON BAR 39
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 44 · LANDS ON BAR 45
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 59 · LANDS ON BAR 60

1 more fill is written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

66 bars across 9 sections: 41 keep time, 10 are fills and 1 is a stop. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 11-19.

CHORUS
PART E
CHORUS 2
PART L
PART E
CHORUS 3
PART J
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesBEJVLFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Then Came The Last Days Of May?

75 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 Then Came The Last Days Of May hard to play on drums?

71 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 44 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

66 bars, about 3:24 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 29 exercises over 11 sittings, about 23 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 Then Came The Last Days Of May?

5 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 34, 38, 44, 56, 59, 61 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 66 BARS ANALYSED
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