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Critical Acclaim · Avenged Sevenfold

EXERCISE 20 OF 71
Fill at bar 40, 77 and 138
88 / 184 BARS COVERED
0 / 71 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART H, CHORUS 2
PART H
PART K
PART H
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
11 groovesTKXFH+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 13
FILL · 13
LAND · 13
RUN · 3
JOIN · 14
LINK · 5
SECTION · 9
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Critical Acclaim on drums

184 bars of 4/4 at a walking 84 BPM, 8:06 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
84 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
184
LENGTH
8:06
DIFFICULTY
60/100

silence through bars 1-8, kick and crashes through bars 9-16, snare through bars 17-32, hi-hat through bars 33-48, snare through bars 49-52 and hi-hat through bars 53-65, and 16 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 41-47, 78-84 and 139-141, and 2 more places -- 15.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    42
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |o---o---o---o---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x---x---x---x---|
Critical Acclaim -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

13 fills to learn, played 40 times: bars 24, 31, 32, 40, 48, 49 and 34 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 -- K, T -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  3. Bars 15-21 -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Through Part D and Part F -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  5. Bars 21-40 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through Part H and Part K -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through Part K and the Chorus -- 6 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus and Part F -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  9. and 8 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Critical Acclaim?

84 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 Critical Acclaim hard to play on drums?

60 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 13 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

184 bars, about 8:06 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 Critical Acclaim?

13 fills to learn, played 40 times: bars 24, 31, 32, 40, 48, 49 and 34 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 184 BARS ANALYSED