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Workhorse · Mastodon

EXERCISE 1 OF 68
Groove AP -- Part AP (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 115 BARS COVERED
0 / 68 PASSED · 10 BARS LIT · IN THE PART AP
PART A
PART G
PART O
CHORUS
PART O
CHORUS 2
PART AF
PART AP
PART AX
OUTRO
10 groovesUAPAOAX+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 15
LAND · 15
RUN · 3
JOIN · 10
LINK · 4
SECTION · 9
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Workhorse on drums

115 bars of 3/4 -- not four -- at 134 BPM, 3:38 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

80 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO
134 BPM
TIME
3/4
BARS
115
LENGTH
3:38
DIFFICULTY
80/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-10, snare through bars 11-12, ride through bars 13-24, hi-hat through bars 25-42, snare through bars 43-46 and hi-hat through bars 47-56, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 73-75, 77-79 and 81-83, and 1 more place -- 9.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    73                       74
    1.......2.......3....... 1.......2.......3.......
CC |x---g---x---x---g---x---|x---g---x---g---x---x---|
SD |------------------------|x-------x-------x-------|
BD |x-------x---x-------x---|--------------------x---|
Workhorse -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 25 times: bars 23, 24, 28, 32, 34, 36 and 19 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 52 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 -- AP -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- U -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- A -- 6 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  4. Through Part A and Part G -- 4 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  5. Through Part G -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Through Part G and Part O -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Through Part O and the Chorus -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Bars 41-49 -- 6 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  9. and 7 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Workhorse?

134 BPM, in 3/4, 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 Workhorse hard to play on drums?

80 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 43 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

115 bars, about 3:38 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 52 exercises over 15 sittings, about 28 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Workhorse?

15 fills to learn, played 25 times: bars 23, 24, 28, 32, 34, 36 and 19 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 115 BARS ANALYSED