CHAPPELL ROAN · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Pink Pony Club

3 fills to learn, played 5 times across 89 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
144 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
89
LENGTH
2:28
DIFFICULTY
88/100

Bar 28, and 1 more time

LOOP · 144 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 28 AND 44 · LANDS ON BAR 29

On hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 79 out of 100 -- demanding -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 29. 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 36, and 1 more time

LOOP · 144 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 36 AND 88 · LANDS ON BAR 37

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 80 out of 100 -- hard -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 37. 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 72

LOOP · 144 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 72 · LANDS ON BAR 73

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 95 out of 100 -- hard -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 73. 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 Pink Pony Club?

3 distinct fills, played 5 times: bars 28, 36, 44, 72 and 88.

What is the hardest fill in Pink Pony Club?

The one at bar 72, at 95 out of 100. 89 bars of 4/4 at 144 BPM, about 2:28 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 89 BARS ANALYSED