Ride the lighting · Metallica

249 bars of 4/4 at 152 BPM, about 6:31 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

150 BPM and up
TEMPO
152 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
249
LENGTH
6:31
DIFFICULTY
61/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 13% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 13-14, 17-19 and 26-27, and 13 more places -- 13.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 152 BPM
RIDE THE LIGHTING · BAR 13
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

23 fills to learn, played 67 times: bars 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 29 and 61 more.

LOOP · 152 BPM
BAR 12 · LANDS ON BAR 13 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 152 BPM
BARS 15-16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 152 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21
LOOP · 152 BPM
BAR 24 · LANDS ON BAR 25

19 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

249 bars across 16 sections: 138 keep time, 67 are fills, 22 are stops and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 167-182.

CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
PART AD
PART Z
CHORUS 4
OUTRO 2
9 groovesEADZWI+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Ride the lighting?

152 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 Ride the lighting hard to play on drums?

61 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 31 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

249 bars, about 6:31 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 61 exercises over 16 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 Ride the lighting?

23 fills to learn, played 67 times: bars 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 29 and 61 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 249 BARS ANALYSED
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