The Alien · Dream Theater

421 bars of 6/4 -- not four -- at 220 BPM, 9:28 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Progressive150 BPM and upShuffle / tripletAdvanced
TEMPO
220 BPM
TIME
6/4
BARS
421
LENGTH
9:28
DIFFICULTY
52/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 3% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 123, 125 and 127, and 8 more places -- 3.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 220 BPM
THE ALIEN · BAR 165
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

39 fills to learn, played 159 times: bars 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 153 more.

LOOP · 220 BPM
BAR 1 · LANDS ON BAR 2
LOOP · 220 BPM
BAR 3 · LANDS ON BAR 4
LOOP · 220 BPM
BAR 5 · LANDS ON BAR 6

36 more fills are written out on the fills page.

THE SHAPE

How the song is built

421 bars across 24 sections: 144 keep time, 159 are fills, 15 are stops and 71 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 122-132.

CHORUS
PART AE
PART BF
PART DH
PART EO
BREAK
21 groovesS24BEODHAE+16Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Alien?

220 BPM, in 6/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is The Alien hard to play on drums?

52 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 37 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

421 bars, about 9:28 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 143 exercises over 49 sittings, about 25 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 The Alien?

39 fills to learn, played 159 times: bars 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 153 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 421 BARS ANALYSED
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