When · Opeth

291 bars of 6/4 -- not four -- at 70 BPM, 22:48 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalProgressiveUnder 90 BPMShuffle / triplet
TEMPO
70 BPM
TIME
6/4
BARS
291
LENGTH
22:48
DIFFICULTY
55/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 16% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 42-56, 66-72 and 137-139 -- 15.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 70 BPM
WHEN · BAR 43
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

16 fills to learn, played 25 times: bars 12, 16, 24, 28, 31, 32 and 19 more.

LOOP · 70 BPM
BAR 12 · LANDS ON BAR 13
LOOP · 70 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17
LOOP · 70 BPM
BAR 24 · LANDS ON BAR 25
LOOP · 70 BPM
BAR 28 · LANDS ON BAR 29

12 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

291 bars across 14 sections: 117 keep time, 25 are fills, 10 are stops and 130 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 111-128.

PART B
PART G
CHORUS
PART S6
PART U
PART Z
PART AG
OUTRO
BREAK 2
13 groovesS14MS6UAG+8Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is When?

70 BPM, in 6/4, 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 When hard to play on drums?

55 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 30 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

291 bars, about 22:48 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 53 exercises over 13 sittings, about 27 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 When?

16 fills to learn, played 25 times: bars 12, 16, 24, 28, 31, 32 and 19 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 291 BARS ANALYSED
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