ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Betrayer's Song on drums

116 bars of 4/4 at 110 BPM, about 4:08 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO: 110 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 116
LENGTH: 4:08
DIFFICULTY: 79/100

silence through bars 1-4, hi-hat through bars 5-8, ride through bars 9-12, hi-hat through bars 13-18, ride through bars 19-20 and hi-hat through bars 21-26, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 9, 11 and 19, and 14 more places -- 25% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

    27                                               28
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
RD |--------x-------x-------x-------x-------x-------|x-------x-------x-------------------------------|
SD |------------x-----------x---------------x-------|------------x-----------------------------------|
BD |x-------x-------x---x-----------x---x-------x---|x-------x-------x---x---x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|

The Betrayer's Song -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 6, 8, 12, 20, 36, 41 and 13 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 39 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- M -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part B and the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
Through Part B and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes. Open above.
Through the Chorus and Part H -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part H and Part M -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part M and the Chorus 2 -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
and 5 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Betrayer's Song?

110 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 The Betrayer's Song hard to play on drums?

79 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 61 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

116 bars, about 4:08 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 39 exercises over 13 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Betrayer's Song?

12 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 6, 8, 12, 20, 36, 41 and 13 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 116 BARS ANALYSED