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Fixation On The Darkness · Killswitch Engage

EXERCISE 11 OF 48
Groove H
69 / 124 BARS COVERED
0 / 48 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART G
PART D
PART G
PART D
PART G
CHORUS
PART I
PART X
PART G
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
8 groovesLIDAJG+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 15
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 1
JOIN · 10
LINK · 5
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Fixation On The Darkness on drums

124 bars of 4/4 at 134 BPM, about 3:36 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
134 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
124
LENGTH
3:36
DIFFICULTY
68/100

hi-hat through bars 1-5, snare through bars 6-13, hi-hat through bars 14-21, snare through bars 22-29, hi-hat through bars 30-35 and snare through bars 36-54, and 9 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 39-41, 43-45 and 47-49, and 5 more places -- 17.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    39                                               40
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------x-----|------------------------------------------------|
RD |------------x-----------x-----x-x-x-x-----------|x-----------x-----------x-----------------------|
HH |------------------------------------------------|------------------------------x-x-x-o-----------|
SD |------------------------x-----------------------|------x-----------------x-----------------------|
BD |x-----------------x-----------------------x-----|------------------x-----------------------x-----|
Fixation On The Darkness -- 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 42, 46, 50, 55, 56, 70 and 2 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 42 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 -- L -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- I -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Through Part B and Part D -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  5. Through Part D and Part G -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  6. Through Part G and Part I -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes. Open above.
  7. Bars 18-47 -- 8 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  9. and 8 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Fixation On The Darkness?

134 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 Fixation On The Darkness hard to play on drums?

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 52 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

124 bars, about 3:36 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 42 exercises over 16 sittings, about 23 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 Fixation On The Darkness?

5 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 42, 46, 50, 55, 56, 70 and 2 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 124 BARS ANALYSED