MALCOLM TODD · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in earrings + 4me 4me + you owe me + rodrick rules + roommates + chest pain

2 fills to learn, played 7 times across 461 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
80 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
461
LENGTH
22:15
DIFFICULTY
47/100

Bar 413, and 2 more times

LOOP · 80 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 413, 445 AND 456 · LANDS ON BAR 414

On ride, snare and kick. 11 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 414. 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 436, and 3 more times

LOOP · 80 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 436-437 AND 458-459 · LANDS ON BAR 438

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 32 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 438. 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 earrings + 4me 4me + you owe me + rodrick rules + roommates + chest pain?

2 distinct fills, played 7 times: bars 413, 436-437, 445, 456 and 458-459.

What is the hardest fill in earrings + 4me 4me + you owe me + rodrick rules + roommates + chest pain?

The one at bar 436, at 40 out of 100. 461 bars of 4/4 at a walking 80 BPM, 22:15 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 461 BARS ANALYSED