KIM CARNES · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Bette Davis Eyes

2 fills to learn, played 9 times across 106 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
117 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
106
LENGTH
3:37
DIFFICULTY
43/100

Bar 23, and 5 more times

LOOP · 117 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 23, 53, 64, 68 AND 91, AND 1 MORE PLACE · LANDS ON BAR 24

On snare and kick. 13 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 24. 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 83, and 2 more times

LOOP · 117 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 83, 95 AND 103 · LANDS ON BAR 84

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 54 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 84. 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 Bette Davis Eyes?

2 distinct fills, played 9 times: bars 23, 53, 64, 68, 83 and 91, and 3 more places.

What is the hardest fill in Bette Davis Eyes?

The one at bar 83, at 62 out of 100. 106 bars of 4/4 at 117 BPM, about 3:37 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 106 BARS ANALYSED