Lonely Day · System of a Down

73 bars of 3/4 -- not four -- at 113 BPM, 1:56 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalAlternative / Indie90 to 119 BPMShuffle / tripletIntermediate
TEMPO
113 BPM
TIME
3/4
BARS
73
LENGTH
1:56
DIFFICULTY
54/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 36% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 41-43, 45-47 and 49-51, and 4 more places -- 36.2% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 113 BPM
LONELY DAY · BAR 42
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 40, 44, 52, 60, 68 and 72.

LOOP · 113 BPM
BAR 40 · LANDS ON BAR 41 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 113 BPM
BAR 60 · LANDS ON BAR 61 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

73 bars across 5 sections: 58 keep time, 6 are fills, 1 is a stop and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 14-27.

COUNT-IN
PART B
PART D
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesGBDS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Lonely Day?

113 BPM, in 3/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. The room plays it at any tempo from a quarter of that up to the written one, against the record where the record can follow.

Is Lonely Day hard to play on drums?

54 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 39 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

73 bars, about 1:56 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 16 exercises over 5 sittings, about 25 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 Lonely Day?

2 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 40, 44, 52, 60, 68 and 72.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 73 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other System of a Down drum parts

EVERY SYSTEM OF A DOWN CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →