PAUL GILBERT · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Down To Mexico

2 fills to learn, played 2 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
132 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
120
LENGTH
3:38
DIFFICULTY
52/100

Bar 106

LOOP · 132 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 106 · LANDS ON BAR 107

On crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom and kick. 60 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 107. 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 119

LOOP · 132 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 119 · LANDS ON BAR 120

On crash, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 57 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is how much of it falls off the beat. In the song it lands on bar 120. 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 Down To Mexico?

2 distinct fills, played 2 times: bars 106 and 119.

What is the hardest fill in Down To Mexico?

The one at bar 106, at 60 out of 100. 120 bars of 4/4 at 132 BPM, about 3:38 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 120 BARS ANALYSED