Ride The Lightning · Megadeth

241 bars of 4/4 at 154 BPM, about 6:12 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

MetalRock150 BPM and up
TEMPO
154 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
241
LENGTH
6:12
DIFFICULTY
62/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 15% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 13-16, 18-19 and 39-40, and 15 more places -- 14.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 154 BPM
RIDE THE LIGHTNING · BAR 14
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

35 fills to learn, played 54 times: bars 12, 20, 21, 34, 37, 38 and 48 more.

LOOP · 154 BPM
BAR 12 · LANDS ON BAR 13
LOOP · 154 BPM
BARS 20-21 · LANDS ON BAR 22 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 154 BPM
BAR 34 · LANDS ON BAR 35
LOOP · 154 BPM
BARS 37-38 · LANDS ON BAR 39 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

31 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

241 bars across 25 sections: 126 keep time, 54 are fills, 35 are stops and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 154-162.

PART A
CHORUS
PART AF
CHORUS 3
OUTRO 2
15 groovesCAFABMG+10Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Ride The Lightning?

154 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?

62 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 26 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

241 bars, about 6:12 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 95 exercises over 26 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?

35 fills to learn, played 54 times: bars 12, 20, 21, 34, 37, 38 and 48 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 241 BARS ANALYSED
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