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Build Me Up, Break Me Down · Dream Theater

EXERCISE 1 OF 71
Groove W -- Chorus
0 / 147 BARS COVERED
0 / 71 PASSED · 24 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2
PART M
PART S
CHORUS
PART AA
PART AE
CHORUS 2
OUTRO 2
13 groovesWOCHX+8Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 13
FILL · 13
LAND · 13
RUN · 5
JOIN · 15
LINK · 2
SECTION · 9
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Build Me Up, Break Me Down on drums

147 bars of 4/4 at a walking 95 BPM, 5:51 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
95 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
147
LENGTH
5:51
DIFFICULTY
57/100

silence through bars 1-7, snare through bars 8-16, hi-hat through bars 17-28, ride through bars 29-36, snare through bars 37-52 and hi-hat through bars 53-84, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 69-80 and 115-126 -- 17.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    70
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-----x---xx----|
Build Me Up, Break Me Down -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

13 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 10, 12, 32, 36, 40, 43 and 16 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 57 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 -- W -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- O, C -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  3. Bars 12-25 -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  4. Bars 14-53 -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  5. Bars 13-24 -- 4 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  6. Through Part F and Part M -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Bars 29-45 -- 8 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Bars 45-64 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 8 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Build Me Up, Break Me Down?

95 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 Build Me Up, Break Me Down hard to play on drums?

57 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 41 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

147 bars, about 5:51 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 57 exercises over 16 sittings, about 26 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 Build Me Up, Break Me Down?

13 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 10, 12, 32, 36, 40, 43 and 16 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 147 BARS ANALYSED