ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Youthanasia on drums

137 bars of 4/4 at 132 BPM, about 4:09 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

69 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 132 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 137
LENGTH: 4:09
DIFFICULTY: 69/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-5, toms through bars 6-8, hi-hat through bars 9-32, ride through bars 33-38, toms through bars 39-40 and hi-hat through bars 41-56, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 9-15, 17-23 and 25-30, and 2 more places -- 24.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    9                                                10
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
HH |------------x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
SD |------------------------x-----------------------|------------------------x-----------------------|
BD |x-----------------x-----------------x-----------|------------x-----------------x-----------------|

Youthanasia -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

11 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 13 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 38 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 6 exercises, about 35 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- M, L -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
Through Part G -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part G and the Chorus -- 8 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Bars 37-65 -- 7 exercises, about 25 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and Part V -- 3 exercises, about 16 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 and Part V -- 5 exercises, about 32 minutes.
Through Part V and Part Z -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
and 3 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Youthanasia?

132 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 Youthanasia hard to play on drums?

69 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 48 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

137 bars, about 4:09 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 11 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 Youthanasia?

11 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 13 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 137 BARS ANALYSED