Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres · Rush

519 bars at 200 BPM -- fast, and 11:34 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

ProgressiveRock150 BPM and upAdvanced
TEMPO
200 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
519
LENGTH
11:34
DIFFICULTY
64/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 6% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 87-89, 92 and 95-97, and 7 more places -- 6.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 200 BPM
CYGNUS X-1, BOOK II: HEMISPHERES · BAR 88
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

46 fills to learn, played 111 times: bars 16, 34, 36, 37, 46, 48 and 105 more.

LOOP · 200 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17
LOOP · 200 BPM
BAR 34 · LANDS ON BAR 35
LOOP · 200 BPM
BARS 36-37 · LANDS ON BAR 38 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 200 BPM
BAR 46 · LANDS ON BAR 47

42 more fills are written out on the fills page.

THE SHAPE

How the song is built

519 bars across 47 sections: 207 keep time, 117 are fills, 48 are stops and 96 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 286-303.

BREAK 4
BREAK 7
36 groovesAHS47AJQS42+31Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres?

200 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres hard to play on drums?

64 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 85 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

519 bars, about 11:34 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 167 exercises over 51 sittings, about 25 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 Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres?

46 fills to learn, played 111 times: bars 16, 34, 36, 37, 46, 48 and 105 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 519 BARS ANALYSED
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