A Song For The Optimists · Atreyu

187 bars at 165 BPM -- fast, and 4:38 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalMetalcore / Hardcore150 BPM and up
TEMPO
165 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
187
LENGTH
4:38
DIFFICULTY
61/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 15% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 77, 85 and 107-122, and 4 more places -- 14.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 165 BPM
A SONG FOR THE OPTIMISTS · BAR 107
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

8 fills to learn, played 16 times: bars 20, 28, 36, 44, 53, 54 and 10 more.

LOOP · 165 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21
LOOP · 165 BPM
BAR 28 · LANDS ON BAR 29 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 165 BPM
BAR 44 · LANDS ON BAR 45 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

187 bars across 15 sections: 110 keep time, 16 are fills, 30 are stops and 18 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 56-83.

PART E
PART N
PART X
CHORUS
PART B
PART G
14 groovesUNGEX+9Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is A Song For The Optimists?

165 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. At that speed the thirty-second notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is A Song For The Optimists hard to play on drums?

61 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 43 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

187 bars, about 4:38 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 54 exercises over 19 sittings, about 23 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 A Song For The Optimists?

8 fills to learn, played 16 times: bars 20, 28, 36, 44, 53, 54 and 10 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 187 BARS ANALYSED
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