BDEE · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Foes

2 fills to learn, played 4 times across 104 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
180 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
104
LENGTH
2:19
DIFFICULTY
41/100

Bar 17

LOOP · 180 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 17 · LANDS ON BAR 18

On snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 52 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 18. 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 101, and 2 more times

LOOP · 180 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 101-103 · LANDS ON BAR 104

On crash, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 45 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 104. 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 Foes?

2 distinct fills, played 4 times: bars 17 and 101-103.

What is the hardest fill in Foes?

The one at bar 17, at 52 out of 100. 104 bars at 180 BPM -- fast, and 2:19 of it without a break -- on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 104 BARS ANALYSED