GRATEFUL DEAD · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Jack-A-Roe

2 fills to learn, played 2 times across 120 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
97 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
120
LENGTH
4:44
DIFFICULTY
44/100

Bar 87

LOOP · 97 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 87 · LANDS ON BAR 88

On ride, snare and kick. 16 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 88. 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 119

LOOP · 97 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 119 · LANDS ON BAR 120

On ride, snare and kick. 37 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 120. 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 Jack-A-Roe?

2 distinct fills, played 2 times: bars 87 and 119.

What is the hardest fill in Jack-A-Roe?

The one at bar 119, at 37 out of 100. 120 bars of 4/4 at a walking 97 BPM, 4:44 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 120 BARS ANALYSED