Highway Song · System of a Down

118 bars of 4/4 at 150 BPM, about 3:09 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

MetalProgressive150 BPM and up
TEMPO
150 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
118
LENGTH
3:09
DIFFICULTY
73/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 18% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 29-35, 53-59 and 61-67 -- 18.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 150 BPM
HIGHWAY SONG · BAR 30
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

4 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 28, 52, 77, 78, 82, 86 and 2 more.

LOOP · 150 BPM
BAR 28 · LANDS ON BAR 29 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 150 BPM
BARS 77-78 · LANDS ON BAR 79 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 150 BPM
BAR 82 · LANDS ON BAR 83
LOOP · 150 BPM
BAR 86 · LANDS ON BAR 87 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

118 bars across 14 sections: 83 keep time, 8 are fills, 10 are stops and 3 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 6-18.

CHORUS
VERSE
PART G
VERSE 2
PART G
PART I
CHORUS 2
PART M
OUTRO
9 groovesBGDIM+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Highway Song?

150 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth 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 Highway Song hard to play on drums?

73 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 47 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

118 bars, about 3:09 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 35 exercises over 10 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 Highway Song?

4 fills to learn, played 8 times: bars 28, 52, 77, 78, 82, 86 and 2 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 118 BARS ANALYSED
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