← SONGS

A Blaze In The Northern Sky · Darkthrone

EXERCISE 16 OF 73
Groove J -- Part J (a two-bar phrase)
62 / 167 BARS COVERED
0 / 73 PASSED · 8 BARS LIT · IN THE PART K, PART J
CHORUS
PART K
PART J
PART U
PART Q
OUTRO 2
8 groovesBQAJKJ+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 16
LAND · 16
RUN · 1
JOIN · 11
LINK · 11
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play A Blaze In The Northern Sky on drums

167 bars of 4/4 at 145 BPM, about 4:28 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

81 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
145 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
167
LENGTH
4:28
DIFFICULTY
81/100

snare through bar 1, hi-hat through bars 2-15, snare through bars 16-17, hi-hat through bars 18-31, toms through bars 32-33 and hi-hat through bars 34-62, and 14 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2-4, 6-8 and 10-12, and 4 more places -- 13.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    3
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
HH |o-----o-----o-----o-----o-----o-----o-----o-----|
SD |---x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x--|
BD |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
A Blaze In The Northern Sky -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

16 fills to learn, played 30 times: bars 16, 17, 31, 33, 52, 58 and 24 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 56 exercises -- the grooves, the fills, and the joins between sections, which is where players actually come off -- and puts them in the order a teacher would. Each one opens on a reduction you can already play and adds the notes back a rung at a time, with a tempo to reach and a gate to pass before the next.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 1 exercise, about 21 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- I -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part I -- 6 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Bars 37-51 -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through Part K and Part J -- 5 exercises, about 36 minutes.
  8. Bars 50-86 -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  9. and 7 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is A Blaze In The Northern Sky?

145 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. The room plays it at any tempo from a quarter of that up to the written one, against the record where the record can follow.

Is A Blaze In The Northern Sky hard to play on drums?

81 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 91 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

167 bars, about 4:28 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 56 exercises over 15 sittings, about 29 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

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

How many fills are in A Blaze In The Northern Sky?

16 fills to learn, played 30 times: bars 16, 17, 31, 33, 52, 58 and 24 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 167 BARS ANALYSED