Rational Gaze · Meshuggah

180 bars of 4/4 at 133 BPM, about 5:25 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalRock120 to 149 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
133 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
180
LENGTH
5:25
DIFFICULTY
70/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 16% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 3-4, 11-12 and 67-68, and 11 more places -- 15.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 133 BPM
RATIONAL GAZE · BARS 3-4
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

7 fills to learn, played 71 times: bars 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 65 more.

LOOP · 133 BPM
BARS 1-2 · LANDS ON BAR 3 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 133 BPM
BARS 7-10 · LANDS ON BAR 11 · PLAYED 8 TIMES
LOOP · 133 BPM
BARS 15-16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 133 BPM
BAR 43 · LANDS ON BAR 44 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

3 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

180 bars across 7 sections: 99 keep time, 71 are fills and 1 is a stop. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 142-180.

CHORUS
PART J
PART J
CHORUS 2
OUTRO 2
4 groovesCJAJMFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Rational Gaze?

133 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 Rational Gaze hard to play on drums?

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 53 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

180 bars, about 5:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 26 exercises over 11 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, 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 Rational Gaze?

7 fills to learn, played 71 times: bars 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 65 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 180 BARS ANALYSED
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