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Constant Motion · Dream Theater

EXERCISE 20 OF 108
Fill at bar 21 (a small one)
55 / 165 BARS COVERED
0 / 108 PASSED · 1 BAR LIT · IN THE PART K
PART K
PART AR
PART AU
PART BP
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
15 groovesAEUAUAJBP+10Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 16
FILL · 23
LAND · 23
RUN · 3
JOIN · 19
LINK · 9
SECTION · 14
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Constant Motion on drums

165 bars of 4/4 at a walking 95 BPM, 6:45 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

90 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
95 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
165
LENGTH
6:45
DIFFICULTY
90/100

silence through bars 1-4, hi-hat through bars 5-13, snare through bars 14-21, kick and crashes through bars 22-25, hi-hat through bars 26-37 and snare through bars 38-41, and 21 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 30-32, 34-36 and 42, and 3 more places -- 8.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    30
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------------------------------|
HH |----o---o---o---o---o---o---o---|
SD |----x-------x-------x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-------x-------x-----x-|
Constant Motion -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

23 fills to learn, played 79 times: bars 5, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 73 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 84 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 -- U -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AE -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- AJ -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Through Part E -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through Part E and Part H -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Through Part K -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  7. Through Part H and Part K -- 6 exercises, about 23 minutes. Open above.
  8. Through Part K and Part S -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  9. and 21 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Constant Motion?

95 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Constant Motion hard to play on drums?

90 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 60 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

165 bars, about 6:45 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 84 exercises over 29 sittings, about 26 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 Constant Motion?

23 fills to learn, played 79 times: bars 5, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 73 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 165 BARS ANALYSED