To close out the piece, we'll be playing a rockin' breakdown that will be sure to wreak havoc on the North Pole. So get ready to rock!
We'll now be playing in a standard 4/4 time signature. If you need a quick overview of that time signature, feel free to check out this lesson. Also, the tempo for this section is a bit slower than the rest of the song.
You may notice that the melody in this part is a variation of the main "Carol of the Bells" melody. We're just going to switch it around a bit so it grooves a little more. The main goal in this section is to get these riffs sounding incredibly tight. The rests need to be perfectly silent, and the dead notes need to be solid.
Observe bars 73 and 74 and look for the "X" markings that represent the muted notes (dead notes). If you count the beats while you play this, you'll notice that the muted notes land directly on the "3" count of the measures. This is also right when the snare drum hits. Your goal is to strike those muted notes right along with the snare drum to really accentuate that "pop" sound.
In bars 75 and 76, you'll basically play the same thing as the preceding bars, but you'll have one variation. Instead of playing those muted notes on the "3" count, we'll now be inserting two E power chords played as 8th notes. Be sure to palm mute those power chords and get as much "crunch" as possible.
Have everything down? When you're ready, head on over to the next page for the backing track!