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Sudden Death · Megadeth

EXERCISE 17 OF 59
Groove J -- Part J (a two-bar phrase)
95 / 181 BARS COVERED
0 / 59 PASSED · 12 BARS LIT · IN THE PART I, PART J
PART I
PART J
PART P
PART I
PART J
PART U
CHORUS
PART AA
OUTRO 2
12 groovesXIPJN+7Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 13
FILL · 9
LAND · 9
RUN · 2
JOIN · 10
LINK · 8
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Sudden Death on drums

181 bars, 10:01, at 72 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
72 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
181
LENGTH
10:01
DIFFICULTY
66/100

toms through bars 2-18, silence through bars 19-25, hi-hat through bars 26-37, ride through bars 38-39, hi-hat through bars 40-41 and ride through bars 42-59, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 98-104, 106-112 and 114-120, and 3 more places -- 24.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    99
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
HH |o-----------o-----------o-----------o-----------|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--|
Sudden Death -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

9 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 3, 5, 7, 9, 53, 60 and 13 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 49 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 -- X, I -- 3 exercises, about 35 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- N -- 4 exercises, about 32 minutes.
  3. Through Part B and Part F -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Bars 6-18 -- 3 exercises, about 15 minutes.
  5. Through Part I and Part J -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes. Open above.
  6. Bars 42-54 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Through Part N and Part P -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  8. Through Part P -- 3 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  9. and 7 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Sudden Death?

72 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Sudden Death hard to play on drums?

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 50 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

181 bars, about 10:01 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 49 exercises over 15 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 Sudden Death?

9 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 3, 5, 7, 9, 53, 60 and 13 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 181 BARS ANALYSED