OLIVIA RODRIGO · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in purple

2 fills to learn, played 3 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
151 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
89
LENGTH
2:21
DIFFICULTY
48/100

Bar 56, and 1 more time

LOOP · 151 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 56 AND 72 · LANDS ON BAR 57

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 34 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 57. 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 64

LOOP · 151 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 64 · LANDS ON BAR 65

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 57 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 65. 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 purple?

2 distinct fills, played 3 times: bars 56, 64 and 72.

What is the hardest fill in purple?

The one at bar 64, at 57 out of 100. 89 bars of 4/4 at 151 BPM, about 2:21 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 89 BARS ANALYSED