Altitudes · Jason Becker

140 bars, 10:22, at 52 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

MetalUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
52 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
140
LENGTH
10:22
DIFFICULTY
54/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 26% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 23-29, 31-35 and 57, and 12 more places -- 25.6% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 52 BPM
ALTITUDES · BAR 27
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

22 fills to learn, played 37 times: bars 12, 16, 20, 21, 22, 37 and 31 more.

LOOP · 52 BPM
BAR 12 · LANDS ON BAR 13
LOOP · 52 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17
LOOP · 52 BPM
BARS 20-22 · LANDS ON BAR 23 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 52 BPM
BARS 37-38 · LANDS ON BAR 39 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

18 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

140 bars across 11 sections: 73 keep time, 37 are fills, 6 are stops and 11 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 97-109.

COUNT-IN
PART C
CHORUS
PART P
CHORUS 2
PART AE
PART AI
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
8 groovesHAEAIS1C+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Altitudes?

52 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 Altitudes 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?

140 bars, about 10:22 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 56 exercises over 14 sittings, about 28 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 Altitudes?

22 fills to learn, played 37 times: bars 12, 16, 20, 21, 22, 37 and 31 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 140 BARS ANALYSED
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