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Medusa · Anthrax

EXERCISE 4 OF 40
Groove J -- Part J (a two-bar phrase)
67 / 179 BARS COVERED
0 / 40 PASSED · 35 BARS LIT · IN THE PART J, OUTRO
PART B
CHORUS
PART J
CHORUS 2
PART J
PART O
CHORUS 3
PART J
PART O
PART J
CHORUS 4
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesFJONBFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 5
FILL · 6
LAND · 6
RUN · 3
JOIN · 8
LINK · 6
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Medusa on drums

179 bars of 4/4 at 150 BPM, about 4:45 of playing, on crash, ride, 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
150 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
179
LENGTH
4:45
DIFFICULTY
55/100

toms through bars 1-9, hi-hat through bars 10-33, toms through bars 34-41, hi-hat through bars 42-57, toms through bars 58-65 and ride through bars 66-79, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 10-16, 18-24 and 26-32, and 6 more places -- 35.2% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    11
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |o---o---o---o---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-------|
Medusa -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

6 fills to learn, played 17 times: bars 6, 7, 8, 9, 17, 25 and 11 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 -- F -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes. Open above.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Through Part B and the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  5. Bars 11-46 -- 5 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  6. Through Part J and Part N -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Bars 71-144 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Bars 129-179 -- 5 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Medusa?

150 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 Medusa 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 41 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

179 bars, about 4:45 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 9 sittings, about 24 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 Medusa?

6 fills to learn, played 17 times: bars 6, 7, 8, 9, 17, 25 and 11 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 179 BARS ANALYSED