GEORGE BENSON · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Breezin'

2 fills to learn, played 2 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.

TEMPO
82 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
111
LENGTH
5:25
DIFFICULTY
69/100

Bar 69

LOOP · 82 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 69 · LANDS ON BAR 70

On crash, hi-hat, snare and kick. 83 out of 100 -- hard -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 70. 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 99

LOOP · 82 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 99 · LANDS ON BAR 100

On crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 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 100. 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 Breezin'?

2 distinct fills, played 2 times: bars 69 and 99.

What is the hardest fill in Breezin'?

The one at bar 69, at 83 out of 100. 111 bars of 4/4 at a walking 82 BPM, 5:25 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 111 BARS ANALYSED