Ride The Lightning · Ride the Lightning

249 bars of 4/4 at 152 BPM, about 6:29 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

MetalRock150 BPM and up
TEMPO
152 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
249
LENGTH
6:29
DIFFICULTY
70/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 15% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 14-15, 18-20 and 27-29, and 14 more places -- 14.9% 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 LIGHTNING · BAR 15
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

25 fills to learn, played 70 times: bars 12, 13, 16, 17, 21, 25 and 64 more.

LOOP · 152 BPM
BARS 12-13 · LANDS ON BAR 14 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 152 BPM
BARS 16-17 · LANDS ON BAR 18 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 152 BPM
BAR 21 · LANDS ON BAR 22
LOOP · 152 BPM
BAR 25 · LANDS ON BAR 26

21 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

249 bars across 17 sections: 139 keep time, 70 are fills, 21 are stops and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 168-178.

CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
PART AE
PART AA
CHORUS 4
OUTRO 2
10 groovesFAEAACX+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Ride The Lightning?

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 Lightning hard to play on drums?

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 30 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

249 bars, about 6:29 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 64 exercises over 18 sittings, about 26 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 Lightning?

25 fills to learn, played 70 times: bars 12, 13, 16, 17, 21, 25 and 64 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 249 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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