FALLING IN REVERSE · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Pick Up The Phone (Full Song)

2 fills to learn, played 4 times across 160 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
138 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
160
LENGTH
4:38
DIFFICULTY
63/100

Bar 26, and 2 more times

LOOP · 138 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 26, 78 AND 136 · LANDS ON BAR 27

On snare. 23 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how much of it falls off the beat. In the song it lands on bar 27. 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 152

LOOP · 138 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 152 · LANDS ON BAR 153

On snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 48 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is how much of it falls off the beat. In the song it lands on bar 153. 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 Pick Up The Phone (Full Song)?

2 distinct fills, played 4 times: bars 26, 78, 136 and 152.

What is the hardest fill in Pick Up The Phone (Full Song)?

The one at bar 152, at 48 out of 100. 160 bars of 4/4 at 138 BPM, about 4:38 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 160 BARS ANALYSED