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The Unforgiven. · Metallica

EXERCISE 3 OF 41
Groove J -- Part J (a two-bar phrase)
43 / 114 BARS COVERED
0 / 41 PASSED · 9 BARS LIT · IN THE PART J
PART B
CHORUS
PART J
CHORUS 2
PART J
CHORUS 3
PART O
PART J
CHORUS 4
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesEOJBAEFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 10
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 2
JOIN · 6
LINK · 3
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Unforgiven. on drums

114 bars, 6:10, at 72 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

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

TEMPO
72 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
114
LENGTH
6:10
DIFFICULTY
57/100

snare through bars 1-10, hi-hat through bars 11-14, kick and crashes through bars 15-16, hi-hat through bars 17-60, kick and crashes through bars 61-68 and hi-hat through bars 69-114.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 12-14, 18-19 and 22-23, and 10 more places -- 28.9% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

    31
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
HH |x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x--x--|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x-----------------------x-----------------------|
The Unforgiven. -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 25, 27, 48, 50, 68, 76 and 5 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 -- E, D -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 2 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  3. Through Part B and the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus and Part J -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  5. Bars 24-34 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Bars 30-78 -- 7 exercises, about 35 minutes.
  7. Bars 76-103 -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  8. Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Unforgiven.?

72 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is The Unforgiven. hard to play on drums?

57 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 34 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

114 bars, about 6:10 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 9 sittings, about 29 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Unforgiven.?

7 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 25, 27, 48, 50, 68, 76 and 5 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 114 BARS ANALYSED