Wake Up Dead · Megadeth

133 bars at 161 BPM -- fast, and 3:23 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalRock150 BPM and upAdvanced
TEMPO
161 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
133
LENGTH
3:23
DIFFICULTY
87/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 13% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 3-9, 11 and 13, and 6 more places -- 13.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 161 BPM
WAKE UP DEAD · BAR 3
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

13 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 1, 16, 17, 22, 23, 33 and 21 more.

LOOP · 161 BPM
BAR 1 · LANDS ON BAR 2
LOOP · 161 BPM
BARS 16-17 · LANDS ON BAR 18 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 161 BPM
BAR 33 · LANDS ON BAR 34
LOOP · 161 BPM
BARS 41-42 · LANDS ON BAR 43 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

9 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

133 bars across 11 sections: 87 keep time, 27 are fills, 3 are stops and 3 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 2-15.

CHORUS
PART B
PART H
PART M
CHORUS 2
PART R
PART AC
10 groovesCMRACB+5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Wake Up Dead?

161 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Wake Up Dead hard to play on drums?

87 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 83 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

133 bars, about 3:23 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 54 exercises over 19 sittings, about 26 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 Wake Up Dead?

13 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 1, 16, 17, 22, 23, 33 and 21 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 133 BARS ANALYSED
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