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If Darkness Had A Son · Metallica

EXERCISE 10 OF 70
Groove F
114 / 202 BARS COVERED
0 / 70 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE PART E, OUTRO
PART B
PART E
PART J
CHORUS 2
PART J
CHORUS 4
PART Y
PART J
CHORUS 5
OUTRO
7 groovesHYJEB+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 17
FILL · 12
LAND · 12
RUN · 4
JOIN · 10
LINK · 7
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play If Darkness Had A Son on drums

202 bars of 4/4 at 124 BPM, about 6:29 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
124 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
202
LENGTH
6:29
DIFFICULTY
55/100

kick and crashes through bar 1, snare through bars 2-28, hi-hat through bars 29-42, snare through bars 43-50, toms through bars 51-58 and hi-hat through bars 59-61, and 12 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 43-49, 63-70 and 81-87, and 4 more places -- 22.3% 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---x-g-x-g-x-g-|x-g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|
SD |----x-------x---|----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-----x-|--x-----x-x---x-|
If Darkness Had A Son -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 57, 92, 95, 128, 130, 132 and 9 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 57 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 -- H, B -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  3. Through Part B and Part E -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  4. Through Part E -- 2 exercises, about 16 minutes. Open above.
  5. Bars 42-193 -- 2 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  6. Through Part J -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  7. Through Part J -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  8. Bars 71-83 -- 4 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  9. and 9 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is If Darkness Had A Son?

124 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 If Darkness Had A Son hard to play on drums?

55 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 36 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

202 bars, about 6:29 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 57 exercises over 17 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 If Darkness Had A Son?

12 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 57, 92, 95, 128, 130, 132 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 202 BARS ANALYSED