VACATIONS BAND · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Honey

2 fills to learn, played 5 times across 81 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
153 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
81
LENGTH
2:07
DIFFICULTY
71/100

Bar 8

LOOP · 153 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 8 · LANDS ON BAR 9

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 61 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 9. 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 78, and 3 more times

LOOP · 153 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 78-81

On ride, snare and kick. 72 out of 100 -- demanding -- and what decides that is how much of it falls off the beat.

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 Honey?

2 distinct fills, played 5 times: bars 8 and 78-81.

What is the hardest fill in Honey?

The one at bar 78, at 72 out of 100. 81 bars of 4/4 at 153 BPM, about 2:07 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 81 BARS ANALYSED