Black Dwarf · Candlemass

111 bars of 8/4 -- not four -- at 175 BPM, 5:02 of playing on crash, ride, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

MetalRock150 BPM and up
TEMPO
175 BPM
TIME
8/4
BARS
111
LENGTH
5:02
DIFFICULTY
44/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 55% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-11, 17-28 and 33-40 -- 55.4% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 175 BPM
BLACK DWARF · BAR 1
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

3 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 29 and 6 more.

LOOP · 175 BPM
BARS 12-16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 175 BPM
BARS 29-32 · LANDS ON BAR 33 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 175 BPM
BARS 41-43 · LANDS ON BAR 44 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

111 bars across 4 sections: 41 keep time, 12 are fills and 55 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 17-28.

CHORUS
PART H
BREAK
4 groovesS4AHIFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Black Dwarf?

175 BPM, in 8/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Black Dwarf hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 40 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

111 bars, about 5:02 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 13 exercises over 5 sittings, about 22 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Black Dwarf?

3 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 29 and 6 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 111 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Candlemass drum parts

EVERY CANDLEMASS CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →