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Contagion · The Black Dahlia Murder

EXERCISE 1 OF 58
Groove H -- Chorus
0 / 131 BARS COVERED
0 / 58 PASSED · 32 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2, OUTRO
PART E
CHORUS
PART J
CHORUS 2
PART J
PART N
PART O
PART R
PART V
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
9 groovesHEJXR+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 7
FILL · 12
LAND · 12
RUN · 3
JOIN · 9
LINK · 8
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Contagion on drums

131 bars of 4/4 at 128 BPM, about 4:06 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
128 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
131
LENGTH
4:06
DIFFICULTY
87/100

ride through bars 1-16, toms through bars 17-18, hi-hat through bars 19-26, ride through bars 27-33, hi-hat through bars 34-41 and snare through bars 42-43, and 9 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 19-25, 35-37 and 39-41, and 5 more places -- 24.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    19
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|
HH |----o-------o-------o-------o-------o-------o---|
SD |----x-------x-------x-------x-------x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-------x-------x-------x-------x-------|
Contagion -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 28 times: bars 4, 8, 12, 17, 18, 26 and 22 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 45 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 -- H -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes. Open above.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- X -- 1 exercise, about 21 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 4 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  4. Bars 1-19 -- 7 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  5. Bars 17-39 -- 8 exercises, about 36 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus 2 and Part J -- 4 exercises, about 17 minutes.
  7. Through Part J and Part N -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Through Part N and Part O -- 3 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  9. and 6 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Contagion?

128 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 Contagion hard to play on drums?

87 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 78 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

131 bars, about 4:06 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 45 exercises over 14 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 Contagion?

12 fills to learn, played 28 times: bars 4, 8, 12, 17, 18, 26 and 22 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 131 BARS ANALYSED