The Ballad · Testament

176 bars, 11:42, at 60 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

MetalRockUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
60 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
176
LENGTH
11:42
DIFFICULTY
58/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 35% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 48-53, 56-62 and 64-69, and 4 more places -- 34.9% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 60 BPM
THE BALLAD · BAR 57
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

4 fills to learn, played 21 times: bars 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 and 15 more.

LOOP · 60 BPM
BARS 39-46 · LANDS ON BAR 47 · PLAYED 16 TIMES
LOOP · 60 BPM
BAR 55 · LANDS ON BAR 56
LOOP · 60 BPM
BARS 118-119 · LANDS ON BAR 120 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 60 BPM
BAR 123 · LANDS ON BAR 124 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

176 bars across 5 sections: 138 keep time, 21 are fills, 10 are stops and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 128-165.

PART C
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesHICAS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Ballad?

60 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 The Ballad hard to play on drums?

58 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 34 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

176 bars, about 11:42 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 18 exercises over 6 sittings, about 23 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 The Ballad?

4 fills to learn, played 21 times: bars 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 and 15 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 176 BARS ANALYSED
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