← SONGS

Rational Gaze · Meshuggah

EXERCISE 19 OF 34
Join Part M to Part J (bars 44-46)
92 / 180 BARS COVERED
0 / 34 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART M, PART J
CHORUS
PART J
PART M
PART J
CHORUS 2
OUTRO 2
4 groovesCJAJMFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 6
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 1
JOIN · 6
LINK · 2
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Rational Gaze on drums

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.

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

TEMPO
133 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
180
LENGTH
5:25
DIFFICULTY
70/100

snare through bars 1-16, hi-hat through bars 17-40, snare through bars 41-48, hi-hat through bars 49-64, snare through bars 65-96 and toms through bars 97-100, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

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.

    3                4
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---x---x---x---|x---x---x---x---|
SD |-g---g--x--g---g|-g---g--x--g----|
BD |x--xx-x--xx--xx-|--xx-----x--xx-x|
Rational Gaze -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 26 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 -- C -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 15 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  4. The grooves the song is built on -- M -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Bars 16-45 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  6. Bars 44-66 -- 3 exercises, about 15 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through the Chorus 2 -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus 2 -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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