The Writing on the Wall · Iron Maiden

134 bars, 7:13, at 75 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

RockMetalUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
134
LENGTH
7:13
DIFFICULTY
44/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 13% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 26, 28 and 53, and 13 more places -- 12.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 75 BPM
THE WRITING ON THE WALL · BAR 84
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

16 fills to learn, played 47 times: bars 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29 and 41 more.

LOOP · 75 BPM
BARS 22-25 · LANDS ON BAR 26 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 27 · LANDS ON BAR 28 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 29 · LANDS ON BAR 30 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BARS 41-42 · LANDS ON BAR 43 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

12 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

134 bars across 16 sections: 64 keep time, 47 are fills and 10 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 14-20.

COUNT-IN
PART E
PART P
PART X
PART S
PART X
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
11 groovesLXTES1+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Writing on the Wall?

75 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth 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 Writing on the Wall hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 23 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

134 bars, about 7:13 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 52 exercises over 15 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Writing on the Wall?

16 fills to learn, played 47 times: bars 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29 and 41 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 134 BARS ANALYSED
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