Perfect Day · Lou Reed

45 bars of 6/4 -- not four -- at 75 BPM, 3:34 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

PopRockUnder 90 BPMShuffle / triplet
TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
6/4
BARS
45
LENGTH
3:34
DIFFICULTY
40/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 48% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2-10 and 19-24 -- 48.4% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 75 BPM
PERFECT DAY · BAR 2
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 3 times: bars 11, 16 and 25.

LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 11 · LANDS ON BAR 12 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

45 bars across 5 sections: 25 keep time, 3 are fills and 14 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-10.

CHORUS
PART D
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
BREAK
3 groovesBS5DFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Perfect Day?

75 BPM, in 6/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Perfect Day hard to play on drums?

40 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 12 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

45 bars, about 3:34 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 10 exercises over 3 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 Perfect Day?

2 fills to learn, played 3 times: bars 11, 16 and 25.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 45 BARS ANALYSED
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