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The Scorpion · Megadeth

EXERCISE 13 OF 40
Groove I
84 / 134 BARS COVERED
0 / 40 PASSED · 6 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, PART J, CHORUS 2
PART S2
CHORUS
PART J
PART S5
CHORUS 2
PART J
PART Q
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
9 groovesFJQS2S12+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 6
LAND · 6
RUN · 1
JOIN · 7
LINK · 3
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Scorpion on drums

134 bars of 4/4 at a walking 101 BPM, 5:18 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
101 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
134
LENGTH
5:18
DIFFICULTY
70/100

silence through bars 1-4, kick and crashes through bars 5-8, silence through bars 9-13, kick and crashes through bars 14-15, hi-hat through bars 16-31 and ride through bars 32-39, and 11 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 16-22, 24-30 and 63-69, and 4 more places -- 37.6% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    17
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
HH |o-----o-----o-----o-----o-----o-----o-----o-----|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x--------x--------------x--x-----x--------x-----|
The Scorpion -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

6 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 4, 7, 39, 51, 61, 86 and 4 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 33 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 -- F -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- N -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Through Part S2 and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through the Chorus and Part J -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus and Part J -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Scorpion?

101 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Scorpion hard to play on drums?

70 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?

134 bars, about 5:18 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 12 sittings, about 23 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 Scorpion?

6 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 4, 7, 39, 51, 61, 86 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 134 BARS ANALYSED