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Surrounded · Dream Theater

EXERCISE 4 OF 42
Groove D -- Part D (a two-bar phrase)
15 / 68 BARS COVERED
0 / 42 PASSED · 4 BARS LIT · IN THE PART D
COUNT-IN
PART B
PART D
PART F
PART G
PART O
PART Q
OUTRO
9 groovesYQGBD+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 7
FILL · 8
LAND · 8
RUN · 3
JOIN · 7
LINK · 1
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Surrounded on drums

68 bars, 4:14, at 67 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

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

TEMPO
67 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
68
LENGTH
4:14
DIFFICULTY
76/100

silence through bars 1-5, ride through bars 6-13, hi-hat through bars 14-25, ride through bars 26-27, toms through bars 28-29 and ride through bars 30-31, and 8 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 6-12 -- 11.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    7
    1.......2.......3.......4.......5...
RD |x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|
HH |----------------------------------o-|
SD |------x-------------------x---------|
BD |x-------------x-x---x---------------|
HF |x-----------------------------------|
Surrounded -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

8 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 18 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 33 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 -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- Y -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  4. Through Part D and Part F -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through Part G -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Bars 20-32 -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  7. Through Part G and Part O -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  8. Through Part Q -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Surrounded?

67 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 Surrounded hard to play on drums?

76 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?

68 bars, about 4:14 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 12 sittings, about 24 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 Surrounded?

8 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 18 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 68 BARS ANALYSED