← SONGS

Psycho · System of a Down

EXERCISE 1 OF 39
Groove M -- Chorus (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 133 BARS COVERED
0 / 39 PASSED · 24 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2
COUNT-IN
PART B
PART E
CHORUS
PART E
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
8 groovesMEPBS1+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 3
JOIN · 7
LINK · 2
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Psycho on drums

133 bars of 4/4 at 146 BPM, about 3:39 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

59 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
146 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
133
LENGTH
3:39
DIFFICULTY
59/100

silence through bars 1-8, hi-hat through bars 9-16, kick and crashes through bars 17-20, snare through bars 21-24, hi-hat through bars 25-32 and ride through bars 33-36, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 55-60, 63-68 and 87-92, and 1 more place -- 19.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    55               56
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|----------------|
HH |----x-g-x-g-x-g-|x-g-x-g-x-g-o---|
SD |--------x-----x-|------------x---|
BD |x---------------|----x-----x-----|
Psycho -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

5 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 28, 32, 46, 50, 54, 78 and 6 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 -- M, E -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes. Open above.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 1 exercise, about 13 minutes.
  3. Through Part B and Part C -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Bars 19-25 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through Part E -- 6 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  6. Bars 36-104 -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Through Part E and the Chorus -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  8. Bars 69-109 -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  9. and 2 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Psycho?

146 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 Psycho hard to play on drums?

59 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 36 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

133 bars, about 3:39 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 10 sittings, about 27 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 Psycho?

5 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 28, 32, 46, 50, 54, 78 and 6 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 133 BARS ANALYSED