Free To Decide – The Cranberries drums: play-along

Free To Decide drums: tempo, difficulty and parts

Free To Decide by The Cranberries is 116 BPM and runs 3:25: 98 bars and 922 notes played on the ride, kick, hi-hat, snare, crash and tom 2.

The drum part is rated Medium — comfortable once the groove is steady, and the fills are where it asks more.

The first fill worth practising comes at 3:17, the hi-hat opens as well as closes.

Free To Decide drum beats and fills

The beats and fills worth practising in Free To Decide, found in DRUMY’s drum chart: the ones to learn first, not every one in the song. Each beat is listed where it first comes in, with how many bars of its section play it.

Beats

Main beat0:52bar 2624 bars

Fills

Fill at bar 963:17bar 96

Learn them in the Trainer

The Trainer teaches Free To Decide a part at a time, then the joins between the parts, every step starting at 70% of full speed.

How to play Free To Decide on drums

Plug in your electronic drum kit over USB — or play on the keyboard.
Press play. The notes of Free To Decide come down in time with the recording. Play it in Beatfall or read it as drum notation.
Slow it down. Take the Fill at bar 96 at 0.5× or 0.75× with a click and a count-in, then bring it up to 116 BPM.
Check every hit — on time, early or late — before you record your Free To Decide drum cover.

Play Free To Decide on your kit

Free To Decide on drums: questions

How hard is Free To Decide on drums?

Free To Decide by The Cranberries is rated medium in the song library: 922 notes over 98 bars at 116 BPM. Start it at 0.5× or 0.75×, or on the Easy level with the hardest notes taken out.

What BPM is Free To Decide?

Free To Decide plays at about 116 BPM and runs 3:25.

Where are the drum fills in Free To Decide?

The fill worth practising in Free To Decide comes at 3:17 (Fill at bar 96). These are the ones DRUMY's drum chart picks out to learn first, not every fill in the song.

Can I play Free To Decide on drums without the drums in the song?

Play it along with the full recording, or turn the backing off and play to the click.

Can I learn Free To Decide step by step?

Yes. DRUMY's Trainer turns Free To Decide into a course: its beats, fills and joins one at a time. Each step starts at 70% of full speed, moves up after two times round at 90% or better, and slows to as low as 50% if it needs to. Learning the hands and the kick separately is an option.