Island · Mastodon

129 bars of 3/4 -- not four -- at 125 BPM, 3:25 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

ProgressiveMetal120 to 149 BPMShuffle / triplet
TEMPO
125 BPM
TIME
3/4
BARS
129
LENGTH
3:25
DIFFICULTY
82/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 14% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 33-38, 49-54 and 81-86 -- 14.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 125 BPM
ISLAND · BARS 33-34
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

29 fills to learn, played 56 times: bars 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and 50 more.

LOOP · 125 BPM
BAR 4 · LANDS ON BAR 5
LOOP · 125 BPM
BAR 8 · LANDS ON BAR 9 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 125 BPM
BAR 10 · LANDS ON BAR 11
LOOP · 125 BPM
BAR 12 · LANDS ON BAR 13

25 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

129 bars across 13 sections: 54 keep time, 56 are fills and 3 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 34-39.

PART C
CHORUS
PART U
CHORUS 2
PART U
PART C
CHORUS 3
PART U
PART AM
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesJUCAMAW+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Island?

125 BPM, in 3/4, 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 Island hard to play on drums?

82 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 91 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

129 bars, about 3:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 60 exercises over 20 sittings, about 25 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 Island?

29 fills to learn, played 56 times: bars 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and 50 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 129 BARS ANALYSED
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