The Helix Nebula · sea of suns

215 bars at 160 BPM -- fast, and 5:33 of it without a break -- on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

ProgressiveMetal150 BPM and up
TEMPO
160 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
215
LENGTH
5:33
DIFFICULTY
67/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 8% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 77-78, 80-82 and 85-86, and 4 more places -- 7.9% 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 HELIX NEBULA · BAR 158
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

33 fills to learn, played 49 times: bars 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 46 and 43 more.

LOOP · 160 BPM
BARS 17-20 · LANDS ON BAR 21 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 160 BPM
BAR 28 · LANDS ON BAR 29
LOOP · 160 BPM
BAR 46 · LANDS ON BAR 47
LOOP · 160 BPM
BAR 50 · LANDS ON BAR 51

29 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

215 bars across 20 sections: 114 keep time, 49 are fills, 8 are stops and 25 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 31-42.

COUNT-IN
PART D
PART AB
CHORUS
PART BT
PART CB
PART CN
OUTRO
16 groovesAYABCNDS1+11Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Helix Nebula?

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

Is The Helix Nebula hard to play on drums?

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 47 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

215 bars, about 5:33 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 86 exercises over 24 sittings, about 28 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, 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 Helix Nebula?

33 fills to learn, played 49 times: bars 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 46 and 43 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 215 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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