← SONGS

A Secret Place · Megadeth

EXERCISE 10 OF 45
Groove L
104 / 171 BARS COVERED
0 / 45 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE PART J
PART A
PART J
CHORUS
PART J
PART K
CHORUS 2
PART A
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
6 groovesPAKJS3+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 10
FILL · 8
LAND · 8
RUN · 3
JOIN · 7
LINK · 4
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play A Secret Place on drums

171 bars of 4/4 at 131 BPM, about 5:13 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

54 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
131 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
171
LENGTH
5:13
DIFFICULTY
54/100

silence through bars 1-8, toms through bars 9-23, hi-hat through bars 24-42, toms through bars 43-44, ride through bars 45-60 and hi-hat through bars 61-91, and 9 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 46-47, 49-51 and 53-55, and 14 more places -- 22.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    46
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RD |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-x-----|
A Secret Place -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

8 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 26 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 36 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 -- P, J -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 2 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  3. Through Part A and Part J -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Through Part J and Part K -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes. Open above.
  5. Through Part K -- 4 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus and Part J -- 6 exercises, about 35 minutes.
  7. Bars 72-96 -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus 2 and Part A -- 4 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is A Secret Place?

131 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth 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 Secret Place hard to play on drums?

54 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 33 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

171 bars, about 5:13 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 36 exercises over 12 sittings, about 25 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 Secret Place?

8 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 26 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 171 BARS ANALYSED