← SONGS

Under Pressure · David Bowie

EXERCISE 1 OF 32
Groove C -- Part C
0 / 112 BARS COVERED
0 / 32 PASSED · 24 BARS LIT · IN THE PART C, PART E, PART B
PART B
PART C
PART E
PART B
PART C
PART E
CHORUS
PART C
PART E
OUTRO
6 groovesAECBW+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 4
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 1
JOIN · 6
LINK · 5
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Under Pressure on drums

112 bars of 4/4 at 114 BPM, about 3:56 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

36 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with how often it moves around the kit the part that decides it.

TEMPO
114 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
112
LENGTH
3:56
DIFFICULTY
36/100

hi-hat through bars 1-59, snare through bars 60-67, toms through bars 68-75, snare through bars 76-85, hi-hat through bars 86-107 and silence through bars 108-112.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 16-24, 26 and 41-42, and 3 more places -- 22.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    16
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-x-----x-x-|
BD |x-x-------x-----|
Under Pressure -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

5 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 27, 33, 51, 57, 67, 69 and 9 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 26 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 -- C, B -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  3. Bars 22-38 -- 8 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  4. Bars 35-62 -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus -- 7 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  6. The whole song -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Under Pressure?

114 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 Under Pressure hard to play on drums?

36 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with how often it moves around the kit the part that decides it. The beat itself is 32 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

112 bars, about 3:56 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 26 exercises over 6 sittings, about 28 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Under Pressure?

5 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 27, 33, 51, 57, 67, 69 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 112 BARS ANALYSED