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Skeleton Dance · Arch Enemy

EXERCISE 8 OF 78
Groove G
58 / 164 BARS COVERED
0 / 78 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2
COUNT-IN
CHORUS
PART N
PART U
PART Y
CHORUS 2
PART K
12 groovesDUKS1N+7Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 15
FILL · 16
LAND · 16
RUN · 1
JOIN · 13
LINK · 8
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Skeleton Dance on drums

164 bars of 4/4 at 140 BPM, about 4:38 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

63 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
140 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
164
LENGTH
4:38
DIFFICULTY
63/100

silence through bars 1-12, hi-hat through bars 13-18, ride through bars 19-20, hi-hat through bars 21-26, ride through bars 27-28 and hi-hat through bars 29-42, and 18 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 47-50, 52 and 55-56, and 5 more places -- 13.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    47
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |o---o---o---o---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
Skeleton Dance -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

16 fills to learn, played 26 times: bars 16, 18, 24, 26, 42, 43 and 20 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 61 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 -- U, D -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 5 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes. Open above.
  4. Bars 36-129 -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part N -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  6. Through Part N -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  7. Through Part N and Part U -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  8. Through Part U -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 11 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Skeleton Dance?

140 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 Skeleton Dance hard to play on drums?

63 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 54 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

164 bars, about 4:38 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 61 exercises over 19 sittings, about 25 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 Skeleton Dance?

16 fills to learn, played 26 times: bars 16, 18, 24, 26, 42, 43 and 20 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 164 BARS ANALYSED