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M.I.A. · Avenged Sevenfold

EXERCISE 14 OF 100
Groove M -- Part M (a two-bar phrase)
78 / 236 BARS COVERED
0 / 100 PASSED · 5 BARS LIT · IN THE PART E, PART M
PART B
PART E
PART M
CHORUS
PART E
CHORUS 3
PART AI
PART AO
PART AR
PART Y
OUTRO
14 groovesWEAWBAO+9Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 16
FILL · 23
LAND · 23
RUN · 2
JOIN · 14
LINK · 8
SECTION · 13
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play M.I.A. on drums

236 bars, 12:38, at 70 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

57 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
236
LENGTH
12:38
DIFFICULTY
57/100

silence through bars 1-8, ride through bars 9-25, snare through bars 26-27, ride through bars 28-29, snare through bars 30-35 and ride through bars 36-37, and 31 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 63, 65 and 71, and 17 more places -- 8.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    75
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RD |x---x---x---x---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |--x-----x-x-----|
M.I.A. -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

23 fills to learn, played 76 times: bars 18, 22, 25, 26, 32, 33 and 70 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 76 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 -- W, E -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AR -- 4 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  3. Through Part B and Part E -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  4. Through Part E and Part M -- 5 exercises, about 26 minutes. Open above.
  5. Through Part M -- 4 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  6. Through Part M and the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus and Part E -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 13 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is M.I.A.?

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

Is M.I.A. hard to play on drums?

57 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 27 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

236 bars, about 12:38 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 76 exercises over 21 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 M.I.A.?

23 fills to learn, played 76 times: bars 18, 22, 25, 26, 32, 33 and 70 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 236 BARS ANALYSED