Dissecting that drum fill at the end of the intro in the Eyes of Medusa

DavidPartay

Cold Forged
Oct 26, 2004
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Australia
Ok well I'm transcribing the drums for the Eyes of Medusa for my own benefit, and that fill at the end of the intro is really hard to pick.

Anyone know exactly how it's done? I've looked at the MIDI of the song but while the author has done a great job I'm pretty sure their interpretation of the fill is not completely accurate.

Thanks guys
 
I'll help you out with that, man. I asked a similar question a while back, but nobody could answer it, lol. Jason Rullo is such an amazing player... a lot of his amazingness goes unnoticed. He's my favourite by far :)

That song has crazy drum parts, with amazing polyrhythms that really get the brain juices flowing.

Do you mean the fill at 25 secs?
 
Are you talking about the fill that is in unison with the bass and guitar just before the keyboard part begins? If so, that part is completely bad ass.
 
Yeah, the one at 25-26 seconds is the one. At the moment (going by memory, I'm at work) I have it notated as:

(S = snare, 1 = high tom, 2 = mid tom, 3 = low tom and () indicates a unison hit)

SS21SS21SSS23(S3)

The dynamics Jason uses on the toms in the fill makes them difficult to distinguish, I'm pretty sure he doesn't use the bassdrum in the fill. I *think* this is correct because it allows you to play the fill without crossing your hands (if you went 1-2 instead of 2-1), and the three on the snaredrum swap the lead hand over to finish the fill.

It seems to make logical sense to me, and I'm pretty sure it's accurate but I was hoping someone might have a better idea :).

Also yes, Jason Rullo is very much underrated and under-esteemed! One of the most musically complementing drummers I have ever heard. He's also one of my top favourites and one of my biggest influences (alongside Virgil Donati, Dave Weckl, Mike Portnoy and Thomas Lang)

I'd love to hear him (or see him) do a solo. It'd be awesome to see exactly what he's capable of.


Back on the Eyes of Medusa, the main reason I decided to transcribe the song is because I really want to learn it but I can't for the life of me memorise the drum parts! There's just too many cool syncopated patterns with the feet!
 
I think you're close with your inturpretation. I've noticed one thing that needs to be changed (the 3 snare hits near the end), and it is possible that the bass drum is doing a steady 16th note pattern over every hit.
I believe he has 5 toms, but I may be wrong, since this was his old kit. I don't believe his 8 inch tom is being used in this fill.
I am going to guess at which toms he is using because it's pretty hard to distinguish, but here it goes:

SS22SS33S4SS44(S5)

I have a feeling that it is more complicated than this, but it's too hard to friggin' hear! Maybe Jax can ask Rullo what he did for this recording ;) hehe
 
Walling did some pretty cool parts, for example in Smoke and Mirrors there's a whole bunch of fills in the verse where the main pattern is continual 16th notes with the feet, it then goes into a 16th note triplet pattern which is SBBBSBBBSBBBSBBB

and that is a difficult exercise to get tight at that speed. Of course, anyone who's been playing longer than 10 years I would expect to be able to do that ;). Especially since I've been playing just under 10 years, don't practise nearly enough and I can do it :p

I think you're close with your inturpretation. I've noticed one thing that needs to be changed (the 3 snare hits near the end), and it is possible that the bass drum is doing a steady 16th note pattern over every hit.
I believe he has 5 toms, but I may be wrong, since this was his old kit. I don't believe his 8 inch tom is being used in this fill.
I am going to guess at which toms he is using because it's pretty hard to distinguish, but here it goes:

SS22SS33S4SS44(S5)

I was only using the 3 toms to simplify things for the transcription, FYI ;). In regards to the 3 snaredrum hits at the end, I see what you mean. I listened to that bit in particular several times and the problem is that if you add that extra tom hit, you're adding too many notes into the fill. If you tap your finger along as 8th notes you'll hear that the last hit of the fill is between the 8th notes, where my 13 note interpretation fits perfectly whereas yours leaves that last note a 16th late ;).

So I guess until one day we get an official word from Jason we're probably never gonna get it :(.

There's no 16th note pattern played on the bassdrum, unless he plays it differently live. I know he does the fill differently on the LoTEoF album, it's more like:

3ss2ss3ss4s5(S5)

Which also supports my 13 notes interpretation ;). Dammit, why couldn't he play that one on the original recording? So much easier to interpret :p
 
DavidPartay said:
Walling did some pretty cool parts, for example in Smoke and Mirrors there's a whole bunch of fills in the verse where the main pattern is continual 16th notes with the feet, it then goes into a 16th note triplet pattern which is SBBBSBBBSBBBSBBB

and that is a difficult exercise to get tight at that speed. Of course, anyone who's been playing longer than 10 years I would expect to be able to do that ;). Especially since I've been playing just under 10 years, don't practise nearly enough and I can do it :p

I was only using the 3 toms to simplify things for the transcription, FYI ;). In regards to the 3 snaredrum hits at the end, I see what you mean. I listened to that bit in particular several times and the problem is that if you add that extra tom hit, you're adding too many notes into the fill. If you tap your finger along as 8th notes you'll hear that the last hit of the fill is between the 8th notes, where my 13 note interpretation fits perfectly whereas yours leaves that last note a 16th late ;).

So I guess until one day we get an official word from Jason we're probably never gonna get it :(.

There's no 16th note pattern played on the bassdrum, unless he plays it differently live. I know he does the fill differently on the LoTEoF album, it's more like:

3ss2ss3ss4s5(S5)

Which also supports my 13 notes interpretation ;). Dammit, why couldn't he play that one on the original recording? So much easier to interpret :p

:lol:

That block of text just for one fill!

Would you mind breaking down The Odyssey's drums for me, beat by beat, fill by fill? ;)
 
There is a complete transcription of the Odyssey which I do have, I'll check the author's name and see if I can find it online for you.