Watermelon Man head hunters · Herbie Hancock

197 bars of 4/4 at 146 BPM, about 5:24 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Jazz / BluesFunk / Soul120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
146 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
197
LENGTH
5:24
DIFFICULTY
46/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 16% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 12, 14 and 24, and 19 more places -- 15.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 146 BPM
WATERMELON MAN HEAD HUNTERS · BAR 24
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 2 times: bars 125 and 129.

LOOP · 146 BPM
BAR 125 · LANDS ON BAR 126
LOOP · 146 BPM
BAR 129 · LANDS ON BAR 130
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

197 bars across 15 sections: 170 keep time, 2 are fills and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 152-184.

CHORUS
PART J
PART D
PART H
CHORUS 3
CHORUS 4
PART C
PART Y
11 groovesBYDCH+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Watermelon Man head hunters?

146 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 Watermelon Man head hunters hard to play on drums?

46 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 30 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

197 bars, about 5:24 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 56 exercises over 17 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, mid 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 Watermelon Man head hunters?

2 fills to learn, played 2 times: bars 125 and 129.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 197 BARS ANALYSED
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