The Motherload · Mastodon

180 bars of 4/4 at 146 BPM, about 4:56 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

MetalProgressive120 to 149 BPMAdvanced
TEMPO
146 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
180
LENGTH
4:56
DIFFICULTY
78/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 23% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 28-30, 32-33 and 36-37, and 21 more places -- 23.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 146 BPM
THE MOTHERLOAD · BAR 36
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

33 fills to learn, played 83 times: bars 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 77 more.

LOOP · 146 BPM
BARS 2-3 · LANDS ON BAR 4 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 146 BPM
BAR 7 · LANDS ON BAR 8 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 146 BPM
BARS 10-11 · LANDS ON BAR 12 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 146 BPM
BARS 13-15 · LANDS ON BAR 16 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

29 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

180 bars across 12 sections: 81 keep time, 83 are fills and 1 is a stop. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 43-50.

PART I
CHORUS
PART E
PART I
CHORUS 2
PART AU
PART BG
OUTRO 2
8 groovesQIEAUBG+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Motherload?

146 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 Motherload hard to play on drums?

78 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 60 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

180 bars, about 4:56 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 69 exercises over 25 sittings, about 25 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 Motherload?

33 fills to learn, played 83 times: bars 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 77 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 180 BARS ANALYSED
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