← SONGS

The Bigger Picture · Dream Theater

EXERCISE 5 OF 107
Fill at bar 243 (a small one)
40 / 256 BARS COVERED
0 / 107 PASSED · 1 BAR LIT · IN THE OUTRO
PART S2
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART B
CHORUS 3
PART AZ
OUTRO
20 groovesFS2BBFAZ+15Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 18
FILL · 25
LAND · 25
RUN · 5
JOIN · 16
LINK · 4
SECTION · 13
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Bigger Picture on drums

256 bars of 4/4 at 144 BPM, about 7:23 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

TEMPO
144 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
256
LENGTH
7:23
DIFFICULTY
44/100

hi-hat through bars 1-3, ride through bars 4-7, hi-hat through bars 8-11, silence through bars 12-56, kick and crashes through bars 57-59 and snare through bars 60-63, and 33 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 9, 65 and 67, and 19 more places -- 14.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    9
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|
HH |----o---o---o---|
SD |--------x-------|
BD |x-----x-------x-|
The Bigger Picture -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

25 fills to learn, played 47 times: bars 5, 10, 63, 70, 78, 82 and 41 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 81 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 -- F, BF -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AJ -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
  3. Bars 1-131 -- 5 exercises, about 36 minutes.
  4. Bars 9-64 -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through Part K and the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through Part P -- 6 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  7. Through Part P and Part T -- 4 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  8. Bars 87-175 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 13 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Bigger Picture?

144 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 The Bigger Picture hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 36 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

256 bars, about 7:23 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 81 exercises over 21 sittings, about 27 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 Bigger Picture?

25 fills to learn, played 47 times: bars 5, 10, 63, 70, 78, 82 and 41 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 256 BARS ANALYSED