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Dead is Alive · Distortion

Dead is Alive · Distortion
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EXERCISE 1 OF 47
Groove F -- Chorus (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 191 BARS COVERED
0 / 47 PASSED · 36 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2, CHORUS 3
PART A
PART C
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
BREAK
10 groovesFCS17KA+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 15
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 3
JOIN · 9
LINK · 5
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Dead is Alive on drums

191 bars at 160 BPM -- fast, and 4:47 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
160 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
191
LENGTH
4:47
DIFFICULTY
85/100

hi-hat through bars 1-17, silence through bars 18-20, snare through bars 21-34, toms through bars 35-36, snare through bars 37-52 and ride through bars 53-60, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 37-45, 47 and 49, and 9 more places -- 22.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    37                                               38
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|
SD |------------x--------x--------------x-----------|------------x--------x--------------x-----x--x--|
BD |x--x--x--x-----x--------x--x--x--x--------x-----|x--x--x--x-----x--------x--x--x--x-----x--------|
Dead is Alive -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

5 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 35, 36, 52, 60, 100, 108 and 2 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 41 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 -- F -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- C -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Through Part A and Part S2 -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  5. Through Part C and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus and Part K -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus and Part K -- 2 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  9. and 9 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Dead is Alive?

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

Is Dead is Alive hard to play on drums?

85 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 67 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

191 bars, about 4:47 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 41 exercises over 17 sittings, about 24 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 Dead is Alive?

5 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 35, 36, 52, 60, 100, 108 and 2 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 191 BARS ANALYSED