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Wither · Dream Theater

EXERCISE 22 OF 67
Fill at bar 36 (a small one)
102 / 153 BARS COVERED
0 / 67 PASSED · 1 BAR LIT · IN THE PART M
PART E
PART M
PART E
PART M
CHORUS 3
BREAK
PART AE
CHORUS 4
OUTRO
8 groovesKMEAES11+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 15
LAND · 15
RUN · 4
JOIN · 10
LINK · 6
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Wither on drums

153 bars of 4/4 at 126 BPM, about 4:51 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

58 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
126 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
153
LENGTH
4:51
DIFFICULTY
58/100

silence through bars 1-3, hi-hat through bars 4-28, snare through bars 29-38, hi-hat through bars 39-64, snare through bars 65-108 and silence through bars 109-116, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 21-27, 57-62 and 85-87, and 8 more places -- 22.5% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    86
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|
SD |------------------------x-----------------------|
BD |x-----x-----------x-----------------------x-----|
Wither -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 31 times: bars 20, 36, 48, 63, 64, 68 and 25 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 51 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 -- K -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- M, AE -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Bars 5-125 -- 4 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  4. Through Part E -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through Part E -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. Bars 17-84 -- 6 exercises, about 35 minutes.
  7. Through Part M and Part E -- 7 exercises, about 28 minutes. Open above.
  8. Bars 52-65 -- 6 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  9. and 6 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Wither?

126 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Wither hard to play on drums?

58 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 35 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

153 bars, about 4:51 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 51 exercises over 14 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 Wither?

15 fills to learn, played 31 times: bars 20, 36, 48, 63, 64, 68 and 25 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 153 BARS ANALYSED