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Wharf Rat · Grateful Dead

EXERCISE 21 OF 66
Join Part T to Chorus 3 (bars 118-120)
104 / 217 BARS COVERED
0 / 66 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART T, CHORUS 3
CHORUS
BREAK
PART T
CHORUS 3
PART V
14 groovesDS5VAJAO+9Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 15
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 4
JOIN · 18
LINK · 1
SECTION · 13
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Wharf Rat on drums

217 bars of 4/4 at 115 BPM, about 7:32 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
115 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
217
LENGTH
7:32
DIFFICULTY
64/100

toms through bars 1-4, ride through bars 5-8, kick and crashes through bars 9-10, snare through bars 11-12, ride through bars 13-88 and silence through bars 89-111, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 5-8, 15 and 17, and 15 more places -- 32.3% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

    30
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
RD |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|
SD |------------------------x-----------------------|
BD |x-----------x-----------------------x-----------|
Wharf Rat -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 10, 12, 38, 141, 142, 143 and 9 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 58 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 -- D -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- S -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Bars 1-79 -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through the Break 2 and Part T -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Bars 118-135 -- 4 exercises, about 19 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through Part V -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Through Part S and Part V -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  9. and 11 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Wharf Rat?

115 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 Wharf Rat hard to play on drums?

64 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 38 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

217 bars, about 7:32 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 58 exercises over 19 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Wharf Rat?

7 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 10, 12, 38, 141, 142, 143 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 217 BARS ANALYSED