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As I Am · Dream Theater

EXERCISE 26 OF 95
Groove M
109 / 235 BARS COVERED
0 / 95 PASSED · 7 BARS LIT · IN THE PART J
COUNT-IN
CHORUS
PART J
PART J
CHORUS 5
CHORUS 6
PART J
OUTRO 2
10 groovesGJAAAHBO+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 21
FILL · 21
LAND · 21
RUN · 1
JOIN · 13
LINK · 10
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play As I Am on drums

235 bars of 4/4 at a walking 100 BPM, 9:10 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
100 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
235
LENGTH
9:10
DIFFICULTY
73/100

silence through bars 1-20, snare through bars 21-27, toms through bars 28-29, snare through bars 30-45, hi-hat through bars 46-76 and toms through bars 77-78, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 30-32, 34-36 and 38-44, and 14 more places -- 17.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    30
    1...............2...............3...............4...............
CC |x---------------x---------------x---------------x---------------|
SD |----------------x-------------------------------x---------------|
BD |x-------------------------------x-------------------------------|
As I Am -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

21 fills to learn, played 39 times: bars 14, 16, 18, 20, 28, 29 and 33 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 73 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 -- J, G -- 2 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AA -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Through Part B -- 7 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  4. Through Part B and the Chorus -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part J -- 6 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  6. Through Part J -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through Part J -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  8. Through Part O -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  9. and 18 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is As I Am?

100 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 As I Am hard to play on drums?

73 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 41 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

235 bars, about 9:10 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 73 exercises over 26 sittings, about 24 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 As I Am?

21 fills to learn, played 39 times: bars 14, 16, 18, 20, 28, 29 and 33 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 235 BARS ANALYSED