Colony of Birchmen · Mastodon

136 bars of 4/4 at 126 BPM, about 4:00 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

ProgressiveMetal120 to 149 BPMAdvanced
TEMPO
126 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
136
LENGTH
4:00
DIFFICULTY
72/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 13% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 58-60, 64-65 and 70-71, and 5 more places -- 12.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 126 BPM
COLONY OF BIRCHMEN · BAR 64
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

11 fills to learn, played 33 times: bars 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54 and 27 more.

LOOP · 126 BPM
BARS 62-63 · LANDS ON BAR 64 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 126 BPM
BARS 66-69 · LANDS ON BAR 70 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 126 BPM
BARS 72-73 · LANDS ON BAR 74 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

8 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

136 bars across 17 sections: 71 keep time, 33 are fills, 4 are stops and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 5-12.

PART C
PART C
PART K
CHORUS
PART M
CHORUS 2
PART AE
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
10 groovesSKCHAI+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Colony of Birchmen?

126 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 Colony of Birchmen hard to play on drums?

72 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 30 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

136 bars, about 4:00 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 51 exercises over 17 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Colony of Birchmen?

11 fills to learn, played 33 times: bars 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54 and 27 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 136 BARS ANALYSED
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