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Then Came The Last Days Of May · Blue Öyster Cult

EXERCISE 7 OF 35
Groove F
29 / 66 BARS COVERED
0 / 35 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART E, OUTRO
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
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 2
JOIN · 7
LINK · 1
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Then Came The Last Days Of May on drums

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.

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

TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
66
LENGTH
3:24
DIFFICULTY
71/100

snare through bar 1, ride through bars 2-5, hi-hat through bars 6-9, ride through bars 10-25, hi-hat through bars 26-29 and ride through bars 30-47, and 2 more changes after that.

The beat

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.

    2
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
RD |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x--------------------x--x-----x--------------x--|
Then Came The Last Days Of May -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 29 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.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- B, E -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Through Part E and the Chorus 2 -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes. Open above.
  4. Through the Chorus 2 -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus 2 -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus 2 -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  7. Bars 18-29 -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus 3 and Part J -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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