Breaking All Illusions · Dream Theater

393 bars of 4/4 at 146 BPM, about 11:30 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

RockProgressive120 to 149 BPMAdvanced
TEMPO
146 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
393
LENGTH
11:30
DIFFICULTY
65/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 5% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 109-115, 117-122 and 125-130 -- 5.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 146 BPM
BREAKING ALL ILLUSIONS · BARS 109-110
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

37 fills to learn, played 96 times: bars 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 90 more.

LOOP · 146 BPM
BAR 15 · LANDS ON BAR 16 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 146 BPM
BAR 17 · LANDS ON BAR 18 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

35 more fills are written out on the fills page.

THE SHAPE

How the song is built

393 bars across 36 sections: 207 keep time, 96 are fills, 15 are stops and 44 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 226-245.

PART BP
PART DH
PART DZ
BREAK 6
31 groovesAAS36NBPDH+26Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Breaking All Illusions?

146 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 Breaking All Illusions hard to play on drums?

65 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 57 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

393 bars, about 11:30 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 139 exercises over 39 sittings, about 27 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 Breaking All Illusions?

37 fills to learn, played 96 times: bars 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 90 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 393 BARS ANALYSED
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