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Vienna · Billy Joel

EXERCISE 4 OF 25
Groove C -- Part C
64 / 99 BARS COVERED
0 / 25 PASSED · 10 BARS LIT
COUNT-IN
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART G
CHORUS 3
PART C
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesACS1GS3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 6
FILL · 4
LAND · 4
RUN · 2
JOIN · 4
LINK · 2
SECTION · 2
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Vienna on drums

99 bars of 4/4 at 125 BPM, about 3:10 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

47 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
125 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
99
LENGTH
3:10
DIFFICULTY
47/100

silence through bars 1-9, snare through bars 10-24, ride through bars 25-37, snare through bars 38-53, ride through bars 54-65 and snare through bars 66-71, and 2 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-24, 32-40 and 42-44, and 9 more places -- 67.4% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    38
    1.....2.....3.....4.....
SD |------------x-----------|
BD |x-----------------------|
Vienna -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 53, 72, 73, 77, 85 and 89.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 20 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 -- A -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  2. Through the Chorus 2 -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes. Open above.
  3. Bars 45-74 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Bars 37-81 -- 9 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  5. Bars 78-92 -- 6 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  6. The whole song -- 1 exercise, about 10 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Vienna?

125 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Vienna hard to play on drums?

47 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 9 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

99 bars, about 3:10 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 20 exercises over 6 sittings, about 24 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 Vienna?

4 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 53, 72, 73, 77, 85 and 89.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 99 BARS ANALYSED