ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Altered State on drums

230 bars of 4/4 at 153 BPM, about 6:01 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO: 153 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 230
LENGTH: 6:01
DIFFICULTY: 69/100

toms through bars 3-14, hi-hat through bars 15-26, ride through bars 27-34, hi-hat through bars 35-42, ride through bars 43-50 and hi-hat through bars 51-98, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 3-13, 99-100 and 200-202, and 3 more places -- 17.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    3                                                4
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
FT |------x-----x-----x-----X-----x-----x-----X-----|x-----X-----X-----X-----x-x-----x-x-----x-x-----|
BD |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|x-----x-----x-----x-----x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|

Altered State -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

19 fills to learn, played 28 times: bars 14, 26, 34, 54, 58, 70 and 22 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 77 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- I -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes. Open above.
Through Part E and Part F -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
Through Part E and Part F -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part F and Part E -- 7 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part F and Part E -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
Through Part E -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
and 14 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Altered State?

153 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 Altered State hard to play on drums?

69 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 49 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

230 bars, about 6:01 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 77 exercises over 22 sittings, about 27 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 Altered State?

19 fills to learn, played 28 times: bars 14, 26, 34, 54, 58, 70 and 22 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 230 BARS ANALYSED