Left: The original piece of paper given to me by Mike Keneally before the session.
What to hit (orchestrating) on the drums came from looking at this sheet and listening to a guitar demo. The snare was really the key drum for melody outlining, the kick a close second, the toms used to follow the notes of the melodies, and the 2 cable hihats for the subordinate rhythms. I did this on a set of pads as I had no kit to practice in my Los Angeles apartment.
With regard to the 'tough stuff', the feet played the cable hihats on the less predominant (but more flowing) note groupings where 2 happened simultaneously. The 3rd and 5th bars show this. The hihats played the 2 quintuplet groupings, and then played the 11 & 19 tuplets saving the kick for "1" of bar 6 (the 7 4 bar.)
In order to perform this, one must automate groupings with a limb pair while practicing non math related groupings with the remaining limb pair. The key is in learning to audibly ignore certain hits while focusing on others; see Rhythm Knowledge Volume 1 page 26. The really hard part, is to do this with just one limb or set of limbs while focusing the same way on the remaining limbs.
Practicing this with the odd numbered 'Not Quite Doubled' system from Rhythm Knowledge Volume 2 page 36 is what I did with as many limb combinations (from the C&C limb system also in Volume 2.) Applying stickings to this equations is another level of brain hurting fun.
MK told me about Brian Bellar. I am bowled over that Brian nailed this piece so quickly, so well, and so in character along with all the other Keneally songs he recorded. If you are not familiar with the James LaBrie material, know that Brian is the Bassist on all 3 recordings.
