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Sugar · System of a Down

EXERCISE 6 OF 32
Groove C (a two-bar phrase)
55 / 83 BARS COVERED
0 / 32 PASSED · 5 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2, CHORUS 3
CHORUS
PART E
CHORUS 2
PART E
CHORUS 3
PART L
OUTRO
5 groovesBELJNFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 7
FILL · 4
LAND · 4
RUN · 2
JOIN · 6
LINK · 3
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Sugar on drums

83 bars of 4/4 at 131 BPM, about 2:32 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
131 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
83
LENGTH
2:32
DIFFICULTY
79/100

toms through bar 1, hi-hat through bars 2-9, ride through bars 10-27, hi-hat through bars 28-35, ride through bars 36-49 and hi-hat through bars 50-57, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2-9, 28-35 and 50-57, and 1 more place -- 36.1% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

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

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 1, 27, 49 and 63.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 27 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 -- B -- 4 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus and Part E -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes. Open above.
  4. Through Part E and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Bars 24-60 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  6. Bars 58-71 -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  7. Bars 60-77 -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Sugar?

131 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 Sugar hard to play on drums?

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 42 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

83 bars, about 2:32 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 27 exercises over 9 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Sugar?

4 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 1, 27, 49 and 63.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 83 BARS ANALYSED