Tiny Dancer - Elton John
A cajón part for Tiny Dancer by Elton John: 72 BPM, 113 bars, played all the way through. Learn the groove, play along, and record a take.
- Tempo
- 72 BPM
- Time
- 4/4
- Feel
- straight
- Bars
- 113
- Difficulty
- brand new
Intro4 bars · 1 written ×4
introAccents only for the first four bars, so the track has room to establish itself before you fill anything in.
Verse 14 bars · 1 written ×4
verseBass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Chorus 18 bars · 1 written ×8
chorusEvery and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Verse 28 bars · 1 written ×8
verseAn extra bass on the and of 3. One stroke, and the groove stops sitting and starts pushing. Use it for choruses.
Chorus 24 bars · 1 written ×4
chorusBass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Verse 38 bars · 1 written ×8
verseEvery and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Chorus 38 bars · 1 written ×8
chorusAn extra bass on the and of 3. One stroke, and the groove stops sitting and starts pushing. Use it for choruses.
Verse 44 bars · 1 written ×4
verseBass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Chorus 48 bars · 1 written ×8
chorusEvery and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Verse 58 bars · 1 written ×8
verseAn extra bass on the and of 3. One stroke, and the groove stops sitting and starts pushing. Use it for choruses.
Chorus 54 bars · 1 written ×4
chorusBass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Verse 68 bars · 1 written ×8
verseEvery and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Chorus 68 bars · 1 written ×8
chorusAn extra bass on the and of 3. One stroke, and the groove stops sitting and starts pushing. Use it for choruses.
Verse 74 bars · 1 written ×4
verseBass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Chorus 78 bars · 1 written ×8
chorusEvery and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Verse 88 bars · 1 written ×8
verseAn extra bass on the and of 3. One stroke, and the groove stops sitting and starts pushing. Use it for choruses.
Bridge4 bars · 1 written ×4
bridgePull back to the accents here. The last chorus only lands if something came down before it.
Final chorus3 bars · 1 written ×3
chorusEvery and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Outro2 bars · 1 written ×2
outroStrip back to the accents and stop on a downbeat rather than fading out.
Legend: B bass · S snare · g ghost · · rest. Written at 72 BPM.
Play it and find out how you did
The backing plays in your ears while you record, so Rafa hears only your box. He will tell you how consistent you were and whether you drifted across the take.
This is a cajón part for Tiny Dancer by Elton John, written to fit the record rather than copied off it. The tempo, the metre and the length were measured from the recording, so you can start the track and this arrangement together and still be together at the end.
It runs at 72 BPM in 4/4, which is 113 bars across 6:17. Slow enough that there is nowhere to hide: every stroke is exposed and the temptation is to fill the space. Resist it.
The groove underneath it
It sits on The pop backbeat, so if any of this feels shaky the fastest route is that page rather than this one: the same pattern with nothing else going on, at whatever tempo you can actually hold.
The arrangement thins out for the intro and the outro and fills in through the middle. That shape is the difference between playing a groove and playing a song, and it costs you nothing but restraint at the two ends.
The exercise underneath it
3-1 - The groove
Boom - tick - crack - tick. Half of pop music lives here.
Practise it with RafaRead about this
- Your first cajón grooveOne bar that fits half the songs you already know, step by step.
- Ghost notes: the quiet strokes that make a grooveThe near-silent taps between the loud notes, and why yours are probably too loud.