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The Witching Hour (Complete) · Symphony X

EXERCISE 1 OF 79
Groove P -- Chorus
0 / 141 BARS COVERED
0 / 79 PASSED · 18 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2
PART E
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART AA
PART AC
PART J
PART AE
OUTRO 2
10 groovesPVAAEM+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 14
FILL · 17
LAND · 17
RUN · 4
JOIN · 14
LINK · 4
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Witching Hour (Complete) on drums

141 bars of 4/4 at 137 BPM, about 4:04 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
137 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
141
LENGTH
4:04
DIFFICULTY
75/100

snare through bars 1-4, hi-hat through bars 5-8, kick and crashes through bars 9-11, hi-hat through bars 12-17, snare through bars 18-21 and ride through bars 22-25, and 21 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 26-28, 32-34 and 39-41, and 3 more places -- 12.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    27
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|
SD |--x---x---x---x-|
BD |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
The Witching Hour (Complete) -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

17 fills to learn, played 43 times: bars 4, 8, 11, 14, 15, 25 and 37 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 61 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 -- P -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes. Open above.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- V, AA -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  3. Through Part E -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Through Part E -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  5. Through Part E -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  6. Through Part E and Part M -- 2 exercises, about 17 minutes.
  7. Bars 20-26 -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  8. Through Part N and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  9. and 12 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is The Witching Hour (Complete)?

137 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 Witching Hour (Complete) hard to play on drums?

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

How long is the drum part?

141 bars, about 4:04 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 61 exercises over 20 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 Witching Hour (Complete)?

17 fills to learn, played 43 times: bars 4, 8, 11, 14, 15, 25 and 37 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 141 BARS ANALYSED