Sleepwalk My Life Away · Metallica

213 bars of 4/4 at 125 BPM, about 6:47 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

Metal120 to 149 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
125 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
213
LENGTH
6:47
DIFFICULTY
46/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 46% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 30-37, 40-42 and 44-46, and 22 more places -- 45.5% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 125 BPM
SLEEPWALK MY LIFE AWAY · BAR 42
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 38, 39, 63, 72, 82, 83 and 14 more.

LOOP · 125 BPM
BARS 38-39 · LANDS ON BAR 40 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 125 BPM
BAR 63 · LANDS ON BAR 64
LOOP · 125 BPM
BAR 72 · LANDS ON BAR 73 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 125 BPM
BARS 106-107 · LANDS ON BAR 108 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

213 bars across 9 sections: 142 keep time, 20 are fills and 42 are stops. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-28.

PART A
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
5 groovesCAHBNFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Sleepwalk My Life Away?

125 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 Sleepwalk My Life Away hard to play on drums?

46 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 30 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

213 bars, about 6:47 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 29 exercises over 7 sittings, about 28 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Sleepwalk My Life Away?

9 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 38, 39, 63, 72, 82, 83 and 14 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 213 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Metallica drum parts

EVERY METALLICA CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →