CAGE THE ELEPHANT · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Cigarette Daydreams

2 fills to learn, played 2 times across 78 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
114 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
78
LENGTH
2:44
DIFFICULTY
53/100

Bar 60

LOOP · 114 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 60 · LANDS ON BAR 61

On hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom and kick. 26 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 61. 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 78

LOOP · 114 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 78

On snare, mid tom and kick. 22 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many limbs land on the same note.

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 Cigarette Daydreams?

2 distinct fills, played 2 times: bars 60 and 78.

What is the hardest fill in Cigarette Daydreams?

The one at bar 60, at 26 out of 100. 78 bars of 4/4 at 114 BPM, about 2:44 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 78 BARS ANALYSED