What Is And What Should Never Be · Led Zeppelin

88 bars, 4:42, at 75 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

RockJazz / BluesUnder 90 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
88
LENGTH
4:42
DIFFICULTY
41/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 32% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2-7, 19-24 and 36-41, and 2 more places -- 32.1% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 75 BPM
WHAT IS AND WHAT SHOULD NEVER BE · BAR 2
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 7 times: bars 15, 16, 32, 33, 66, 67 and 1 more.

LOOP · 75 BPM
BARS 15-16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 6 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 81 · LANDS ON BAR 82
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

88 bars across 9 sections: 61 keep time, 7 are fills, 4 are stops and 7 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 37-51.

CHORUS
PART E
CHORUS 2
PART E
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesBELS8S1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is What Is And What Should Never Be?

75 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is What Is And What Should Never Be hard to play on drums?

41 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 28 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

88 bars, about 4:42 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 15 exercises over 5 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high 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 What Is And What Should Never Be?

2 fills to learn, played 7 times: bars 15, 16, 32, 33, 66, 67 and 1 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 88 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Led Zeppelin drum parts

EVERY LED ZEPPELIN CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →