← SONGS

Holy Mountains · System of a Down

EXERCISE 1 OF 55
Groove N -- Part N (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 196 BARS COVERED
0 / 55 PASSED · 40 BARS LIT · IN THE PART N, OUTRO
COUNT-IN
PART F
PART N
PART F
PART N
PART V
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
10 groovesBNFVS1+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 3
JOIN · 13
LINK · 5
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Holy Mountains on drums

196 bars of 4/4 at 146 BPM, about 5:22 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

59 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
146 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
196
LENGTH
5:22
DIFFICULTY
59/100

silence through bars 1-15, ride through bars 16-23, hi-hat through bars 24-50, snare through bars 51-54, hi-hat through bars 55-58 and snare through bars 59-62, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 63-75, 104-117 and 167-179 -- 22.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    63               64
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|----------------|
RD |--g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|x-g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|
SD |--------x-------|--------x-------|
BD |x-------------x-|x---x-------x---|
Holy Mountains -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 18, 22, 23, 51, 52, 53 and 21 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 47 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 -- N, F -- 4 exercises, about 33 minutes. Open above.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus and Part E -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Through Part E and Part F -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Bars 31-63 -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Through Part N and Part Q -- 2 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  7. Bars 75-117 -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  8. Through Part N and Part R -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  9. and 5 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Holy Mountains?

146 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 Holy Mountains hard to play on drums?

59 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 39 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

196 bars, about 5:22 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 47 exercises over 13 sittings, about 26 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 Holy Mountains?

7 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 18, 22, 23, 51, 52, 53 and 21 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 196 BARS ANALYSED