When The Levee Breaks · Led Zeppelin

126 bars, 7:06, at 71 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

RockJazz / BluesUnder 90 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
71 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
126
LENGTH
7:06
DIFFICULTY
58/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 62% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-19, 26-38 and 56-68, and 5 more places -- 61.5% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 71 BPM
WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS · BAR 29
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 17 times: bars 20, 22, 39, 41, 51, 53 and 11 more.

LOOP · 71 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 71 BPM
BAR 22 · LANDS ON BAR 23 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 71 BPM
BAR 51 · LANDS ON BAR 52
LOOP · 71 BPM
BAR 53 · LANDS ON BAR 54

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

126 bars across 14 sections: 94 keep time, 17 are fills, 1 is a stop and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-19.

CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART J
CHORUS 3
CHORUS 4
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesACJS6S7+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is When The Levee Breaks?

71 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 When The Levee Breaks hard to play on drums?

58 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 39 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

126 bars, about 7:06 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 31 exercises over 9 sittings, about 25 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 When The Levee Breaks?

9 fills to learn, played 17 times: bars 20, 22, 39, 41, 51, 53 and 11 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 126 BARS ANALYSED
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