The Gift Of Music · Dream Theater

125 bars at 160 BPM -- fast, and 3:34 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

ProgressiveMetal150 BPM and up
TEMPO
160 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
125
LENGTH
3:34
DIFFICULTY
57/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 24% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 16, 20-21 and 24-26, and 5 more places -- 23.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 160 BPM
THE GIFT OF MUSIC · BAR 20
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

14 fills to learn, played 33 times: bars 8, 10, 12, 13, 17, 27 and 27 more.

LOOP · 160 BPM
BAR 8 · LANDS ON BAR 9
LOOP · 160 BPM
BAR 10 · LANDS ON BAR 11
LOOP · 160 BPM
BARS 12-13 · LANDS ON BAR 14 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 160 BPM
BAR 17 · LANDS ON BAR 18 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

10 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

125 bars across 9 sections: 34 keep time, 33 are fills, 26 are stops and 27 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-7.

PART A
PART D
PART J
PART S5
PART H
OUTRO
BREAK
9 groovesVHS5DS9+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Gift Of Music?

160 BPM, in 4/4, 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 Gift Of Music hard to play on drums?

57 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 40 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

125 bars, about 3:34 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 39 exercises over 11 sittings, about 28 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 Gift Of Music?

14 fills to learn, played 33 times: bars 8, 10, 12, 13, 17, 27 and 27 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 125 BARS ANALYSED
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