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Smoke And Mirrors · Symphony X

EXERCISE 29 OF 78
Fill at bar 50 and 89
135 / 186 BARS COVERED
0 / 78 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE PART P
CHORUS
PART P
PART T
CHORUS 2
PART P
PART T
CHORUS 3
PART AC
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
8 groovesJPACTAR+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 20
LAND · 20
RUN · 1
JOIN · 11
LINK · 11
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Smoke And Mirrors on drums

186 bars of 4/4 at 130 BPM, about 5:44 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

89 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
130 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
186
LENGTH
5:44
DIFFICULTY
89/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-7, toms through bars 8-17, ride through bars 18-25, hi-hat through bars 26-54, snare through bars 55-57 and hi-hat through bars 58-60, and 12 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 18-24, 61-67 and 69-71, and 3 more places -- 20.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    19
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
RD |x---x---x-x-----x-x---x---x-x---|
SD |----x-------x-------x-------x---|
BD |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
Smoke And Mirrors -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

20 fills to learn, played 52 times: bars 8, 9, 11, 15, 17, 25 and 46 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 57 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 -- J -- 4 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- P -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- AC -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus and Part L -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Bars 22-34 -- 8 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  6. Bars 30-54 -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  7. Through Part P and Part T -- 6 exercises, about 23 minutes. Open above.
  8. Through Part P and Part T -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  9. and 9 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Smoke And Mirrors?

130 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Smoke And Mirrors hard to play on drums?

89 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 85 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

186 bars, about 5:44 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 57 exercises over 17 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 Smoke And Mirrors?

20 fills to learn, played 52 times: bars 8, 9, 11, 15, 17, 25 and 46 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 186 BARS ANALYSED