"EVENT HORIZON" · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Basement Show 1 - Ticks and Leeches

3 fills to learn, played 41 times across 88 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.

TEMPO
162 BPM
TIME
7/4
BARS
88
LENGTH
3:37
DIFFICULTY
67/100

Bar 12, and 13 more times

On crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. 75 out of 100 -- demanding -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 26. 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.

Bar 33, and 16 more times

On crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. 90 out of 100 -- hard -- 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.

Bar 55, and 9 more times

On crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. 85 out of 100 -- hard -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 65. 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.

How a fill is practised

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 →

Questions

How many drum fills are in Basement Show 1 - Ticks and Leeches?

3 distinct fills, played 41 times: bars 12-25, 33-49 and 55-64.

What is the hardest fill in Basement Show 1 - Ticks and Leeches?

The one at bar 33, at 90 out of 100. 88 bars of 7/4 -- not four -- at 162 BPM, 3:37 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 88 BARS ANALYSED