BLUR · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Ghost Ship

2 fills to learn, played 2 times across 174 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
140 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
174
LENGTH
4:58
DIFFICULTY
46/100

Bar 58

LOOP · 140 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 58 · LANDS ON BAR 59

On hi-hat, 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 59. 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 98

LOOP · 140 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 98 · LANDS ON BAR 99

On snare, mid tom and floor tom. 3 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 99. 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 Ghost Ship?

2 distinct fills, played 2 times: bars 58 and 98.

What is the hardest fill in Ghost Ship?

The one at bar 58, at 52 out of 100. 174 bars of 4/4 at 140 BPM, about 4:58 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 174 BARS ANALYSED