SAMMY BABITZIN · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Daa Daa

2 fills to learn, played 6 times across 120 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
147 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
120
LENGTH
3:16
DIFFICULTY
52/100

Bar 10, and 2 more times

LOOP · 147 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 10, 44 AND 78 · LANDS ON BAR 11

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick. 46 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 11. 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 36, and 2 more times

LOOP · 147 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 36, 70 AND 104 · LANDS ON BAR 37

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 53 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 37. 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 Daa Daa?

2 distinct fills, played 6 times: bars 10, 36, 44, 70, 78 and 104.

What is the hardest fill in Daa Daa?

The one at bar 36, at 61 out of 100. 120 bars of 4/4 at 147 BPM, about 3:16 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 120 BARS ANALYSED