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Optimistic · Radiohead

EXERCISE 13 OF 20
Run E1 · Outro (bars 87-95)
94 / 107 BARS COVERED
0 / 20 PASSED · 9 BARS LIT · IN THE OUTRO
CHORUS
PART D
CHORUS 2
PART D
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesADIEFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 5
FILL · 1
LAND · 1
RUN · 1
JOIN · 4
LINK · 4
SECTION · 3
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Optimistic on drums

107 bars of 4/4 at a walking 79 BPM, 5:24 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

64 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
79 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
107
LENGTH
5:24
DIFFICULTY
64/100

toms through bars 1-50, hi-hat through bars 51-58, toms through bars 59-78, hi-hat through bars 79-86, ride through bars 87-95 and kick and crashes through bars 96-97, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-9, 11-49 and 59-77 -- 62.6% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    1
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
T2 |-x--X--x-x--Xx--|
FT |x-x-x-x-x-x----x|
BD |x-xx--x-x-xx--x-|
Optimistic -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

1 fill to learn, played 2 times: bars 101 and 106.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 18 exercises -- the grooves, the fills, and the joins between sections, which is where players actually come off -- and puts them in the order a teacher would. Each one opens on a reduction you can already play and adds the notes back a rung at a time, with a tempo to reach and a gate to pass before the next.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- A -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  2. Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus and Part D -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Bars 55-90 -- 5 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  5. Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes. Open above.
  6. The whole song -- 2 exercises, about 14 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Optimistic?

79 BPM, in 4/4, 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 Optimistic hard to play on drums?

64 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 49 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

107 bars, about 5:24 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 18 exercises over 6 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Optimistic?

1 fill to learn, played 2 times: bars 101 and 106.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 107 BARS ANALYSED