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Alive · X JAPAN

EXERCISE 8 OF 75
Groove H
39 / 127 BARS COVERED
0 / 75 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE PART I, PART G
PART I
PART M
PART F
PART U
PART AC
PART AI
CHORUS
PART AI
PART G
BREAK
OUTRO
11 groovesPMAIACF+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 12
FILL · 18
LAND · 18
RUN · 1
JOIN · 10
LINK · 7
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Alive on drums

127 bars, 6:43, at 75 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
127
LENGTH
6:43
DIFFICULTY
70/100

silence through bars 1-5, hi-hat through bars 6-9, ride through bars 10-39, hi-hat through bars 40-45, ride through bars 46-111 and silence through bars 112-120, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 11, 22 and 26, and 7 more places -- 8.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    22
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
RD |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x-----------------x-----x--x-----x--------x-----|
Alive -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

18 fills to learn, played 30 times: bars 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19 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 -- G, AL -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AI -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  3. Through Part S2 and Part I -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Through Part I -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes. Open above.
  5. Through Part S2 and Part I -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  6. Through Part I -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  7. Through Part I and Part M -- 5 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  8. Bars 27-70 -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  9. and 10 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Alive?

75 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Alive hard to play on drums?

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 55 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

127 bars, about 6:43 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 56 exercises over 18 sittings, about 26 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 Alive?

18 fills to learn, played 30 times: bars 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19 and 24 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 127 BARS ANALYSED