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The Motherload · Mastodon

EXERCISE 21 OF 103
2-bar fill at bar 26
85 / 180 BARS COVERED
0 / 103 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE PART I
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
GROOVE · 13
FILL · 33
LAND · 33
RUN · 2
JOIN · 9
LINK · 4
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Motherload on drums

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.

78 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
146 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
180
LENGTH
4:56
DIFFICULTY
78/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-2, toms through bars 3-11, hi-hat through bars 12-27, snare through bars 28-37, toms through bars 38-39 and snare through bars 40-43, and 13 more changes after that.

The beat

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.

    36
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x-g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|
SD |-g--X--g-g--X--g|
BD |--x-----x--x--x-|
The Motherload -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 69 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 -- Q -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- I -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Through Part A and Part E -- 3 exercises, about 12 minutes.
  5. Through Part E and Part I -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through Part I -- 4 exercises, about 37 minutes.
  7. Through Part I and the Chorus -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
  8. Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  9. and 17 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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