ELVIS PRESLEY · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Reconsider Baby

2 fills to learn, played 6 times across 130 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
109 BPM
TIME
3/4
BARS
130
LENGTH
3:35
DIFFICULTY
36/100

Bar 57, and 1 more time

LOOP · 109 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 57-58 · LANDS ON BAR 59

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick. 13 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 59. 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 127, and 3 more times

LOOP · 109 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 127-130

On crash, hi-hat, snare and kick. 25 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for.

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 Reconsider Baby?

2 distinct fills, played 6 times: bars 57-58 and 127-130.

What is the hardest fill in Reconsider Baby?

The one at bar 127, at 25 out of 100. 130 bars of 3/4 -- not four -- at 109 BPM, 3:35 of playing on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 130 BARS ANALYSED