← SONGS

First Kill · Amon Amarth

EXERCISE 29 OF 77
Join Part S5 to Chorus (bars 35-37)
129 / 205 BARS COVERED
0 / 77 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART S5, CHORUS
PART S5
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART AC
CHORUS 3
PART B
PART AL
PART V
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
11 groovesRACVS5AS+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 10
FILL · 17
LAND · 17
RUN · 3
JOIN · 12
LINK · 7
SECTION · 10
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play First Kill on drums

205 bars at 189 BPM -- fast, and 4:20 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO
189 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
205
LENGTH
4:20
DIFFICULTY
79/100

toms through bars 1-17, silence through bars 18-28, toms through bars 29-30, ride through bars 31-34, toms through bars 35-36 and snare through bars 37-50, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 37-43, 45-50 and 57-63, and 8 more places -- 23% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

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

The fills

17 fills to learn, played 40 times: bars 7, 15, 16, 29, 30, 31 and 34 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 59 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 -- R -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AC -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- V -- 5 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  4. Through the Break -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  5. Through Part C and the Break 2 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Bars 7-17 -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Bars 7-37 -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Bars 35-60 -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  9. and 10 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is First Kill?

189 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 First Kill hard to play on drums?

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 60 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

205 bars, about 4:20 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 59 exercises over 18 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 First Kill?

17 fills to learn, played 40 times: bars 7, 15, 16, 29, 30, 31 and 34 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 205 BARS ANALYSED