← SONGS

Chop Suey! · System of a Down

EXERCISE 13 OF 40
Join Part C to Part E (bars 16-18)
86 / 108 BARS COVERED
0 / 40 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART C, PART E
PART S1
PART C
PART E
CHORUS
PART E
CHORUS 2
PART K
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
8 groovesHKEJS1+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 8
FILL · 4
LAND · 4
RUN · 2
JOIN · 9
LINK · 5
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Chop Suey! on drums

108 bars of 4/4 at 128 BPM, about 3:22 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
128 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
108
LENGTH
3:22
DIFFICULTY
66/100

snare through bar 1, silence through bars 2-9, toms through bars 10-17, hi-hat through bars 18-33, ride through bars 34-41 and hi-hat through bars 42-54, and 5 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 37, 41 and 58, and 6 more places -- 20.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    65
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RD |x-g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|
SD |--------x-------|
BD |x---x-----x---x-|
Chop Suey! -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 17, 29, 33, 50, 54, 71 and 2 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 35 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 -- K, J -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Through Part C -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  4. Through Part C and Part E -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  5. Bars 14-27 -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  6. Bars 26-44 -- 6 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  7. Bars 41-66 -- 4 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  8. Through Part K and Part N -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Chop Suey!?

128 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 Chop Suey! hard to play on drums?

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 46 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

108 bars, about 3:22 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 35 exercises over 11 sittings, about 23 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 Chop Suey!?

4 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 17, 29, 33, 50, 54, 71 and 2 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 108 BARS ANALYSED