← SONGS

Midnight Messiah · Dream Theater

EXERCISE 24 OF 108
Groove U
125 / 304 BARS COVERED
0 / 108 PASSED · 5 BARS LIT · IN THE PART P, PART AA
PART K
PART P
CHORUS
PART P
PART P
PART AA
PART AN
PART AU
CHORUS 3
17 groovesACPAAKY+12Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 26
FILL · 14
LAND · 14
RUN · 3
JOIN · 24
LINK · 12
SECTION · 14
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Midnight Messiah on drums

304 bars of 3/4 -- not four -- at 140 BPM, 7:33 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
140 BPM
TIME
3/4
BARS
304
LENGTH
7:33
DIFFICULTY
79/100

silence through bars 1-9, kick and crashes through bars 10-11, silence through bars 12-16, ride through bars 17-48, snare through bars 49-62 and toms through bars 63-64, and 19 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 92, 95 and 97-99, and 8 more places -- 11.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    152
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x-----------------------x-----x-x-x-------x-----|
Midnight Messiah -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

14 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 16, 24, 64, 80, 104, 158 and 14 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 93 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 -- AC, P -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AA -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  3. Through Part F -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Bars 16-34 -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Through Part F and Part K -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through Part K and Part P -- 5 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  7. Through Part P -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes. Open above.
  8. Bars 58-247 -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  9. and 21 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Midnight Messiah?

140 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 Midnight Messiah hard to play on drums?

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 48 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

304 bars, about 7:33 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 93 exercises over 29 sittings, about 26 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 Midnight Messiah?

14 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 16, 24, 64, 80, 104, 158 and 14 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 304 BARS ANALYSED