ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Faceless Agony on drums

170 bars at 220 BPM -- fast, and 3:07 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

83 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO: 220 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 170
LENGTH: 3:07
DIFFICULTY: 83/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-2, hi-hat through bars 3-12, kick and crashes through bars 13-20, snare through bars 21-42, hi-hat through bars 43-49 and snare through bars 50-60, and 12 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 141-147, 149-155 and 157-160 -- 10.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    141                              142
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------x-------x-------x-------|x-------x-------x-------x-------|
SD |----------------x---------------|----------------x---------------|
BD |x---x-x-x-------x-x-x-------x---|----x-x-x-------x-------x---x---|

Faceless Agony -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 28 times: bars 12, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 and 22 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 67 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- BE -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 2 exercises, about 25 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- BB -- 4 exercises, about 23 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part I -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes. Open above.
Through Part I and Part M -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part I and Part M -- 5 exercises, about 21 minutes.
Through Part M and Part P -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
Through Part P and Part S -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
and 12 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Faceless Agony?

220 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 Faceless Agony hard to play on drums?

83 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 54 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

170 bars, about 3:07 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 67 exercises over 20 sittings, about 27 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 Faceless Agony?

15 fills to learn, played 28 times: bars 12, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 and 22 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 170 BARS ANALYSED