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The Writing on the Wall · Iron Maiden

EXERCISE 13 OF 69
Groove E -- Part E
51 / 134 BARS COVERED
0 / 69 PASSED · 6 BARS LIT · IN THE PART E
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
GROOVE · 13
FILL · 16
LAND · 16
RUN · 3
JOIN · 11
LINK · 2
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play The Writing on the Wall on drums

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.

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
134
LENGTH
7:13
DIFFICULTY
44/100

silence through bars 1-8, kick and crashes through bars 9-21, hi-hat through bars 22-25, ride through bars 26-30, hi-hat through bars 31-34 and snare through bars 35-37, and 8 more changes after that.

The beat

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.

    84
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|
RD |--x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-x-----|
The Writing on the Wall -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 52 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 -- L, X -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- O (a two-bar phrase) -- 6 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  3. Bars 11-26 -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  4. Bars 22-31 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part P -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  6. Bars 36-102 -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Through Part T and Part X -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Bars 43-58 -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  9. and 7 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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