2 Minutes To Midnight · Iron Maiden

283 bars at 186 BPM -- fast, and 6:05 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalRock150 BPM and upIntermediate
TEMPO
186 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
283
LENGTH
6:05
DIFFICULTY
66/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 20% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 42-43, 45-46 and 48, and 11 more places -- 20.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 186 BPM
2 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT · BAR 45
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

17 fills to learn, played 38 times: bars 16, 23, 24, 40, 47, 54 and 32 more.

LOOP · 186 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 186 BPM
BARS 23-24 · LANDS ON BAR 25 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 186 BPM
BAR 40 · LANDS ON BAR 41
LOOP · 186 BPM
BAR 47 · LANDS ON BAR 48

13 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

283 bars across 28 sections: 203 keep time, 38 are fills, 3 are stops and 9 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 97-121.

CHORUS
CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
PART J
CHORUS 4
PART U
16 groovesOJFUE+11Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is 2 Minutes To Midnight?

186 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is 2 Minutes To Midnight hard to play on drums?

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 40 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

283 bars, about 6:05 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 85 exercises over 26 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in 2 Minutes To Midnight?

17 fills to learn, played 38 times: bars 16, 23, 24, 40, 47, 54 and 32 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 283 BARS ANALYSED
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