Dark Matter · Steve Vai

128 bars of 4/4 at 126 BPM, about 4:04 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
126 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
128
LENGTH
4:04
DIFFICULTY
55/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 22% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2-4, 60 and 62, and 7 more places -- 22% 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
DARK MATTER · BAR 2
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

14 fills to learn, played 65 times: bars 10, 11, 12, 13, 22, 23 and 59 more.

LOOP · 126 BPM
BARS 10-13 · LANDS ON BAR 14 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 126 BPM
BARS 22-23 · LANDS ON BAR 24 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 126 BPM
BARS 29-31 · LANDS ON BAR 32 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 126 BPM
BAR 39 · LANDS ON BAR 40

10 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

128 bars across 8 sections: 47 keep time, 65 are fills, 4 are stops and 5 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 103-116.

PART F
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesBIFS2S3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Dark Matter?

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 Dark Matter hard to play on drums?

55 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 29 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

128 bars, about 4:04 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 31 exercises over 10 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 Dark Matter?

14 fills to learn, played 65 times: bars 10, 11, 12, 13, 22, 23 and 59 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 128 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Steve Vai drum parts

EVERY STEVE VAI CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →