SAM FENDER · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in people watching

3 fills to learn, played 5 times across 198 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
161 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
198
LENGTH
4:55
DIFFICULTY
47/100

Bar 49, and 2 more times

LOOP · 161 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 49, 105 AND 197 · LANDS ON BAR 50

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 51 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 50. 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 121

LOOP · 161 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 121 · LANDS ON BAR 122

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick. 55 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 122. 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 153

LOOP · 161 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 153 · LANDS ON BAR 154

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick. 55 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 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.

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 people watching?

3 distinct fills, played 5 times: bars 49, 105, 121, 153 and 197.

What is the hardest fill in people watching?

The one at bar 49, at 59 out of 100. 198 bars at 161 BPM -- fast, and 4:55 of it without a break -- on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 198 BARS ANALYSED