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The Killing Road · Megadeth

EXERCISE 16 OF 47
Groove M -- Part M
112 / 150 BARS COVERED
0 / 47 PASSED · 4 BARS LIT
PART S2
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART K
PART M
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
9 groovesGKLS2M+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 8
FILL · 8
LAND · 8
RUN · 2
JOIN · 9
LINK · 4
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Killing Road on drums

150 bars at 155 BPM -- fast, and 3:52 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

64 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
155 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
150
LENGTH
3:52
DIFFICULTY
64/100

silence through bars 1-4, toms through bars 5-9, silence through bars 10-16, hi-hat through bars 17-32, ride through bars 33-48 and hi-hat through bars 49-64, and 5 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 34, 36 and 38, and 26 more places -- 21% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    34
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RD |x-g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|
SD |x---x-------x---|
BD |------x---x---x-|
The Killing Road -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

8 fills to learn, played 16 times: bars 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, 24 and 10 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 38 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 -- K, L -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part K -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes. Open above.
  6. Bars 46-81 -- 7 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  7. Bars 81-89 -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  8. Through Part K and Part M -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Killing Road?

155 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 Killing Road hard to play on drums?

64 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 54 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

150 bars, about 3:52 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 38 exercises over 11 sittings, about 25 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 Killing Road?

8 fills to learn, played 16 times: bars 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, 24 and 10 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 150 BARS ANALYSED