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Dystopian Overture · Dream Theater

EXERCISE 4 OF 53
Groove P -- Part P (a two-bar phrase)
47 / 136 BARS COVERED
0 / 53 PASSED · 12 BARS LIT · IN THE PART P, PART R
CHORUS
PART D
PART P
PART R
PART S7
PART AG
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
9 groovesARDS7AG+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 6
FILL · 14
LAND · 14
RUN · 2
JOIN · 6
LINK · 4
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Dystopian Overture on drums

136 bars of 4/4 at a walking 97 BPM, 5:24 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
97 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
136
LENGTH
5:24
DIFFICULTY
60/100

hi-hat through bars 1-18, kick and crashes through bars 19-21, toms through bars 22-26, hi-hat through bars 27-32, ride through bars 33-52 and kick and crashes through bars 53-57, and 9 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-7, 11 and 14-15, and 6 more places -- 28.8% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

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

The fills

14 fills to learn, played 26 times: bars 13, 17, 22, 24, 25, 26 and 20 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 38 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 -- A, AG -- 3 exercises, about 35 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- P -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
  3. Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus and Part D -- 8 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through Part D and the Chorus 2 -- 6 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus 2 and Part P -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  7. Through Part P and Part R -- 5 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  8. Bars 45-100 -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Dystopian Overture?

97 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 Dystopian Overture 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 22 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

136 bars, about 5:24 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 11 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 Dystopian Overture?

14 fills to learn, played 26 times: bars 13, 17, 22, 24, 25, 26 and 20 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 136 BARS ANALYSED