Rattlehead · Megadeth

158 bars at 183 BPM -- fast, and 3:28 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalRock150 BPM and upAdvanced
TEMPO
183 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
158
LENGTH
3:28
DIFFICULTY
100/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 22% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 88-94, 96-98 and 100-101, and 5 more places -- 21.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 183 BPM
RATTLEHEAD · BAR 89
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

16 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 12, 15, 16, 19, 20, 28 and 30 more.

LOOP · 183 BPM
BAR 12 · LANDS ON BAR 13 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 183 BPM
BARS 15-16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 183 BPM
BARS 19-20 · LANDS ON BAR 21 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 183 BPM
BAR 28 · LANDS ON BAR 29 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

12 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

158 bars across 14 sections: 93 keep time, 36 are fills, 14 are stops and 2 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 4-11.

CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART P
CHORUS 4
PART W
PART W
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesCWPABI+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Rattlehead?

183 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. At that speed the thirty-second notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Rattlehead hard to play on drums?

100 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 87 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

158 bars, about 3:28 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 40 exercises over 13 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 Rattlehead?

16 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 12, 15, 16, 19, 20, 28 and 30 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 158 BARS ANALYSED
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