FAILURE · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Small Crimes

3 fills to learn, played 7 times across 213 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
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
213
LENGTH
7:06
DIFFICULTY
37/100

Bar 137, and 4 more times

LOOP · 120 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 137-141 · LANDS ON BAR 142

On crash, ride, snare, floor tom and kick. 40 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 142. 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 145

LOOP · 120 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 145 · LANDS ON BAR 146

On hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick. 26 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 146. 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 193

LOOP · 120 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 193 · LANDS ON BAR 194

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 43 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 194. 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 Small Crimes?

3 distinct fills, played 7 times: bars 137-141, 145 and 193.

What is the hardest fill in Small Crimes?

The one at bar 193, at 43 out of 100. 213 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 7:06 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 213 BARS ANALYSED