Awake And Alive – Skillet drums: play-along

Awake And Alive drums: tempo, difficulty and parts

Awake And Alive by Skillet is 160 BPM and runs 3:30: 140 bars and 1,059 notes played on the kick, hi-hat, snare, ride, crash, tom 2 and tom 1.

The drum part is rated Medium — comfortable once the groove is steady, and the fills are where it asks more.

The first fill worth practising comes at 0:05, its longest section is the Verse I (0:24) and the hi-hat opens as well as closes.

Song map

0:00Intro
0:20Verse I
0:44Chorus
1:08Interlude
1:20Verse II
1:44Chorus
2:08Breakdown
2:20Bridge
2:38Guitar Solo
2:53Chorus
3:17Outro

Awake And Alive drum beats and fills

The beats and fills worth practising in Awake And Alive, found in DRUMY’s drum chart: the ones to learn first, not every one in the song. Each beat is listed where it first comes in, with how many bars of its section play it; a fill marked ×2 or more comes round again later, the same or nearly the same.

Beats

Intro beat0:06bar 53 bars
Verse I beat0:23bar 167 bars
Chorus beat0:44bar 304 bars
Verse II beat1:21bar 556 bars
Breakdown beat2:09bar 873 bars

Fills

Intro fill0:05bar 4
Fill at bar 330:48bar 33×2
Fill at bar 411:00bar 41
Fill into Chorus1:42bar 69
Fill at bar 812:00bar 81
Fill into Breakdown2:06bar 85
Fill into Bridge2:18bar 93

Learn them in the Trainer

The Trainer teaches Awake And Alive a part at a time, then the joins between the parts, every step starting at 70% of full speed.

How to play Awake And Alive on drums

Plug in your electronic drum kit over USB — or play on the keyboard.
Press play. The notes of Awake And Alive come down in time with the recording. Play it in Beatfall or read it as drum notation.
Slow it down. Take the Fill into Bridge at 0.5× or 0.75× with a click and a count-in, then bring it up to 160 BPM.
Check every hit — on time, early or late — before you record your Awake And Alive drum cover.

Play Awake And Alive on your kit

Awake And Alive on drums: questions

How hard is Awake And Alive on drums?

Awake And Alive by Skillet is rated medium in the song library: 1,059 notes over 140 bars at 160 BPM. Start it at 0.5× or 0.75×, or on the Easy level with the hardest notes taken out.

What BPM is Awake And Alive?

Awake And Alive plays at about 160 BPM and runs 3:30.

Where are the drum fills in Awake And Alive?

The fills worth practising in Awake And Alive come at 0:05 (Intro fill), 0:48 (Fill at bar 33, played twice), 1:00 (Fill at bar 41), 1:42 (Fill into Chorus), 2:00 (Fill at bar 81) and 2:06 (Fill into Breakdown), with more after that. These are the ones DRUMY's drum chart picks out to learn first, not every fill in the song.

Can I play Awake And Alive on drums without the drums in the song?

Play it along with the full recording, or turn the backing off and play to the click.

Can I learn Awake And Alive step by step?

Yes. DRUMY's Trainer turns Awake And Alive into a course: its beats, fills and joins one at a time. Each step starts at 70% of full speed, moves up after two times round at 90% or better, and slows to as low as 50% if it needs to. Learning the hands and the kick separately is an option.