Has anybody learned "Bleed" by Meshuggah?

Chibigoat

Junior Member
Just curious how long it took you and what your skill level is / how long you've been drumming. I know it took Tomas Haake (Meshuggah drummer) like 6 months to be able to go through it smoothly, something like that.

Is this a reasonable question to ask here or are the chances that anybody here can play Bleed really low?
 
I did once listen to the song long enough to

1. discover that Tomas Haake is a machine and

2. get a headache.

About 30 seconds is my limit for modern metal ...
 
I can do the whole intro pattern on the double kicks... for about 30 seconds. That song is simply, how do you say it? Stupid? Yeah, sounds about right.
 
it's just a kick pattern, you should learn it really slow with only ankle motion, and then speed up
 
it's just a kick pattern, you should learn it really slow with only ankle motion, and then speed up

This. BUT the song doesn't keep that same 3 over 4 herta thing going the whole time. The thing about Meshuggah is they'll take a phrase that's, say, 11 eighths long and play it over 4/4 for eight bars, and that'll be a song section. Sometimes they carry it into the next section, sometimes they introduce something else equally strange.

In the case of Bleed, the herta theme at the beginning takes 12 bars to repeat, but the phrases are 8 bars long; halfway into the first verse, you've played the pattern all the way back to the "one" exactly one time. They also introduce a bunch of variations on it throughout the tune, so you would need to learn those as well. Just listen to the record a lot; Obzen is a steering-wheel-drumming favorite of mine and I've got most of the songs memorized just because I'm into that album. Of course I couldn't play them on the drumset without some serious shedding... but my point is that the problem of learning their tunes is equal parts conceptual and physical.

To answer your OP question:

Skill level: Semi-pro with average to below average chops

Years experience: 7.5 or so
 
I did once listen to the song long enough to

1. discover that Tomas Haake is a machine and

2. get a headache.

About 30 seconds is my limit for modern metal ...

30 seconds Pol...? For me it's the start of the screaming ...about 4 bars I think.

I have tried,but I just admit that I don't get it.The drumming is excellent,and super fast and equally technical.......but not very musical .Just my opinion.

Steve B
 
I'm in the process of learning it. Not as simple as it may sound. There's a lot of odd (and a few even) groupings going on. Getting more complex as the song progresses.

I count everything in 4/4 exept the break after the first verse and after the second solo part which are 2/4. I see most kickpatterns as groups of 16's starting with the herta. There are some exeptions to that rule...

First verse is groups of 3's
Second verse (8 bars) is groups of 5's

these don't resolve to the end of the 8 bars, so the new groups start on the & of 1:
8 33333 8 55555 10 5 333333 55555...

Good luck ^_^
 
Last edited:
I'm in the process of learning it. Not as simple as it may sound. There's a lot of odd (and a few even) groupings going on. Getting more complex as the song progresses.

I count everything in 4/4 exept the break after the first verse and after the second solo part which are 2/4. I see most kickpatterns as groups of 16's starting with the herta. There are some exeptions to that rule...

First verse is groups of 3's
Second verse (8 bars) is groups of 5's

these don't resolve to the end of the 8 bars, so the new groups start on the & of 1:
8 33333 8 55555 10 5 333333 55555...

Good luck ^_^

Here's a transcription in six parts if you get stuck:

http://meshuggahdrumtranscriptions.com/index.php?page=Bleed_Lesson_Part_1

I could wish you good luck, but you seem to have taken care of that, yourself ;)
 
I pretty much learned it for that competition when the song was first released but I left it late to record and had probs setting up protools. I remember the best entrant played it perfect but some younger kid won it cos he had more 'likes'.

I didn't learn the last section 100% but I had everything before that. The hardest part for me was figuring out the pattern in the breakdown but now there are a bunch of tutorials and tabs online, it's all a bit lame. Not that it's an easy song, just a bit sad that so many drummers out there see it as THE song to learn.
 
Just an FYI,the thread is almost a year and a half old,and the OP,hasn't been here in over a year.

Steve B
 
Back
Top