Swarm · Meshuggah

171 bars of 4/4 at 135 BPM, about 5:04 of playing, on crash, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalProgressive120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
135 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
171
LENGTH
5:04
DIFFICULTY
66/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 16% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 7, 10 and 12, and 21 more places -- 15.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 135 BPM
SWARM · BAR 24
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

10 fills to learn, played 59 times: bars 22, 30, 42, 43, 44, 45 and 53 more.

LOOP · 135 BPM
BAR 22 · LANDS ON BAR 23 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 135 BPM
BARS 42-46 · LANDS ON BAR 47 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 135 BPM
BARS 52-54 · LANDS ON BAR 55 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 135 BPM
BARS 70-72 · LANDS ON BAR 73 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

6 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

171 bars across 12 sections: 91 keep time, 59 are fills and 6 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 73-87.

PART D
PART B
CHORUS 3
PART D
PART AA
PART AM
OUTRO 2
7 groovesCBDAAAQ+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Swarm?

135 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 Swarm hard to play on drums?

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 53 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

171 bars, about 5:04 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 45 exercises over 19 sittings, about 23 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Swarm?

10 fills to learn, played 59 times: bars 22, 30, 42, 43, 44, 45 and 53 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 171 BARS ANALYSED
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