PIERCE · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

5 fills to learn, played 14 times across 139 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
114 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
139
LENGTH
4:53
DIFFICULTY
59/100

Bar 2

LOOP · 114 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 2 · LANDS ON BAR 3

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 56 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 3. 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 30, and 2 more times

LOOP · 114 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 30, 66 AND 118 · LANDS ON BAR 31

On snare and kick. 47 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 31. 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 42, and 3 more times

LOOP · 114 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 42-45 · LANDS ON BAR 46

On crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. 53 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 46. 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 78, and 4 more times

LOOP · 114 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 78-82 · LANDS ON BAR 83

On crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. 52 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 83. 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 130

LOOP · 114 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 130 · LANDS ON BAR 131

On crash, snare and kick. 47 out of 100 -- a step up -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 131. 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 Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)?

5 distinct fills, played 14 times: bars 2, 30, 42-45, 66, 78-82 and 118, and 1 more place.

What is the hardest fill in Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)?

The one at bar 2, at 56 out of 100. 139 bars of 4/4 at 114 BPM, about 4:53 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 139 BARS ANALYSED