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Ophelia

The Band · 1975

A second-line New Orleans shuffle for developing loose, syncopated roots feel.

Artist
The Band
Year
1975
Genre
americana/roots
Drummer
Levon Helm
Tempo
130 bpm
Time
4/4
Feel
New Orleans shuffle
Difficulty
advanced

Drummer's Quick-Start

Practice tempos

Woodshed
78bpm
Building
104bpm
Target
130bpm

The feel

A New Orleans shuffle in 4/4 around 130 BPM. It moves — stay relaxed in the hands so you don't tense up and rush.

What to watch

  • •Lock the shuffle triplet; the #1 mistake is letting it straighten out as you speed up.
  • •Advanced: isolate the single hardest bar and loop it slowly before ever playing along.

How to learn it

Well-known tutorials exist for this one — use the links below, and play along from your own copy.

Generated from this song's groove profile — analysis only, no notation. A human-reviewed AI brief with a full groove breakdown, key moments and song map replaces this as briefs roll out.

Learn it

Find drum tutorials on YouTube ↗

iDrum links to where lessons already live — we don't host recordings or publish transcriptions. Play along from your own music.

Discussion

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