Drum Deconstruct

Guns n Roses – You Could Be Mine

Lesson Introduction

Have you ever heard a song and just gone, WOW!!! The intro drum section to this song has to be one of the biggest drum intro’s in rock history, what a monster. In this lesson we’re looking at the very beginning of the song and turning it into an exercise played on the snare at first blending with the feet and then playing around the kit as intended. It’s a great one to learn so lets get started

Note: This lesson is not intended to chart the whole song, rather to teach you how to construct the drum beat played at the beginning of the song.

Level: Intermediate

Prerequisite:

To master this lesson, you need to have a basic understanding on note values using quarters and eighth notes on the Kick, Snare & Toms. If you’re just starting out, revise as necessary and practice with patience you’ll get it.

 

Steps:

The steps we take to build this lesson will be broken down into these parts:

  1. Play Intro Fill On The Snare
  2. Play The Intro Fill Around The Kit
  3. That Awesome Tom Section On The Snare
  4. That Awesome Tom Section Around the Kit

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Video Lesson

The Finished Product

Firstly let’s review this 8 bar pattern as played at a similar tempo of 144 bpm. The first 2 bars are the intro fill around the kit indicated on the first line. Then the next 3 lines (bars 3 – 8) are the main beat for the first 46 seconds of the song played between toms, snare, kick and hats on the foot.

Score

Step 1: Play Intro Fill On The Snare

We simplify the intro fill by bringing the snare, tom and kick parts to one surface, the snare. This is the first 2 bars We’ll refer to as the intro fill played only on the snare.

Tips:

  • Use a metronome with a tempo of 100 bpm
  • Accent the final beat, the ‘4’ of the 2nd
  • When Comfortable increase the tempo as far as 150
  • Repeat 20 times correctly before moving on

Step 2. Play The Intro Fill Around The Kit

Once accomplished with the above snare pattern, we’ll play this section similar to the actual song using the toms, snare and double kick at a reduced tempo of 100 BPM approx.

Tips:

  • Start with a metronome set at 100 bpm.
  • Kick can be played as single or double kick (use double kick if possible)
  • When Comfortable increase the tempo as far as 150
  • Repeat 20 times correctly before moving on

Step 3: That Awesome Tom Section

This section is played following the intro fill and continues to approximately 45 seconds into the song.

For this exercise, play on the snare only to get the feel of the beats involved before diving head first into the actual beat.

Tips:

  • Play all parts on the snare
  • Start with a metronome set at 100 bpm.
  • Kick and hats play in unison with feet
  • Play Hand patterns as per below until accomplished
  • Accent on 2 & 4
  • When Comfortable increase the tempo as far as 150
  • Repeat 20 times correctly before moving on

Step 4: That Awesome Tom Section Around the Kit

Using what we’ve learnt from step 3, we now extend this to the kit, specifically, snare, floor, and rack toms  while the feet play in unison on the quarters.

Tips:

  • Play around the kit
  • Start with a metronome set at 100 bpm
  • Kick and hats play in unison with feet
  • Play Hand pattern as indicated below
  • Accent snare parts on 2 & 4
  • When Comfortable increase the tempo as far as 150
  • Repeat 20 times correctly before moving on

Repeat each exercise at least 20 times before attempting the next.

Once you are comfortable with playing the above-mentioned exercises go back to the top and attempt the pattern as played in the song. Start with a tempo you are comfortable with then increase until 150 BPM.  

Conclusion

This is not meant to represent a full transcript of the song, rather an exercise extracted from the first 46 seconds of the song.

See what you can extract from this exercise to build your skills further.

 

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