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Illumination · Marty Friedman

EXERCISE 4 OF 50
Fill at bar 15
20 / 69 BARS COVERED
0 / 50 PASSED · 1 BAR LIT · IN THE PART B
COUNT-IN
PART B
CHORUS
PART S4
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
6 groovesDSQBS4+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 5
FILL · 16
LAND · 16
RUN · 1
JOIN · 4
LINK · 3
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Illumination on drums

69 bars, 3:49, at 70 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

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
70 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
69
LENGTH
3:49
DIFFICULTY
55/100

silence through bars 1-5, hi-hat through bars 6-15, ride through bars 16-24, toms through bars 25-30, silence through bars 31-34 and ride through bars 35-36, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 6-14 and 37 -- 16.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    7
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
HH |x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|
SD |--------x---------------x-------|
BD |x---------------x---------------|
Illumination -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

16 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 15, 17, 21, 23, 27, 29 and 13 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 33 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 -- B, D -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- S -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  3. Through Part B and the Chorus -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Bars 28-36 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Bars 38-58 -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Bars 35-62 -- 9 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus 2 and the Outro -- 7 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  8. Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Illumination?

70 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Illumination 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 31 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

69 bars, about 3:49 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 9 sittings, about 26 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 Illumination?

16 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 15, 17, 21, 23, 27, 29 and 13 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 69 BARS ANALYSED