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ATWA · System of a Down

EXERCISE 17 OF 27
Run H1 · Part H (bars 37-40)
40 / 65 BARS COVERED
0 / 27 PASSED · 4 BARS LIT · IN THE PART H
COUNT-IN
PART A
CHORUS
PART C
PART E
CHORUS 2
PART H
PART J
PART M
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
8 groovesBHAJM+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 6
FILL · 3
LAND · 3
RUN · 1
JOIN · 7
LINK · 1
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play ATWA on drums

65 bars of 4/4 at a walking 85 BPM, 3:04 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
85 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
65
LENGTH
3:04
DIFFICULTY
55/100

silence through bars 1-16, hi-hat through bars 17-40, ride through bars 41-48 and hi-hat through bars 49-65.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 17-20, 33-35 and 57-59 -- 18.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    17
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x-------x-------|
HH |----o-o-----ooo-|
SD |----x-x-----xxx-|
T2 |-x-------x------|
FT |--x-------x-----|
BD |x--x----x--x----|
ATWA -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

3 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 24, 36, 40, 48, 52, 56 and 2 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 23 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 -- B, E -- 2 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus and Part C -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Bars 24-37 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Through Part H and Part J -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes. Open above.
  6. Through Part J and Part M -- 6 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  7. The whole song -- 2 exercises, about 15 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is ATWA?

85 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 ATWA hard to play on drums?

55 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 53 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

65 bars, about 3:04 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 23 exercises over 7 sittings, about 24 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 ATWA?

3 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 24, 36, 40, 48, 52, 56 and 2 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 65 BARS ANALYSED