3 fills to learn, played 7 times across 305 bars. Two fills that share a rhythm and differ only in how they are spread round the toms are one fill here, learned once and orchestrated twice.
On hi-hat, snare and kick. 20 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 23. The exercise loops the figure on its own first, and the one after it puts it back: one bar of rest to count yourself in, the figure, then the landing with the time still running. Getting out of a fill is the half most people never practise.
On mid tom and floor tom. 4 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 73. The exercise loops the figure on its own first, and the one after it puts it back: one bar of rest to count yourself in, the figure, then the landing with the time still running. Getting out of a fill is the half most people never practise.
On crash, hi-hat, snare and kick. 20 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 297. The exercise loops the figure on its own first, and the one after it puts it back: one bar of rest to count yourself in, the figure, then the landing with the time still running. Getting out of a fill is the half most people never practise.
A fill is rhythm before it is orchestration. The room plays the whole figure on the snare first, puts the feet under it second, and moves it round the toms last -- looped on its own, round and round, until the hands know it. Then it puts the fill back where it lives: a bar of rest to count in, the figure, and the downbeat it lands on, because landing square is the other half of the job.
PRACTISE THESE FILLS →3 distinct fills, played 7 times: bars 22, 24, 72, 208 and 294-296.
The one at bar 22, at 28 out of 100. 305 bars of 3/4 -- not four -- at 310 BPM, 2:57 of playing on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.