6 fills to learn, played 23 times across 238 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.
On snare, mid tom and floor tom. 0 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 2. 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.
On snare and floor tom. 16 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 150. 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.
On hi-hat, snare and kick. 18 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 154. 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.
On hi-hat, snare and floor tom. 9 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 174. 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.
On hi-hat, snare, mid tom and floor tom. 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 182. 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.
On hi-hat, snare and floor tom. 16 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 190. 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.
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 →6 distinct fills, played 23 times: bars 1, 49, 113, 148-149, 153 and 157, and 16 more places.
The one at bar 181, at 33 out of 100. 238 bars of 3/4 -- not four -- at 136 BPM, 5:15 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.