3 fills to learn, played 6 times across 111 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. 31 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 14. 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 hi-hat, snare, kick and hi-hat foot. 42 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 50. 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, snare and kick. 25 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for.
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 6 times: bars 13, 49, 77, 85, 105 and 111.
The one at bar 49, at 50 out of 100. 111 bars of 4/4 at 125 BPM, about 3:32 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.