GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in The Dead Flag Blues

3 fills to learn, played 7 times across 113 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
100 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
113
LENGTH
4:10
DIFFICULTY
32/100

Bar 35, and 1 more time

LOOP · 100 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 35-36 · LANDS ON BAR 37

On ride, snare and kick. 28 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 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 38, and 1 more time

LOOP · 100 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 38 AND 40 · LANDS ON BAR 39

On ride, snare and kick. 28 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 39. 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 2 more times

LOOP · 100 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 42-44 · LANDS ON BAR 45

On ride, snare and kick. 32 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 45. 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 The Dead Flag Blues?

3 distinct fills, played 7 times: bars 35-36, 38, 40 and 42-44.

What is the hardest fill in The Dead Flag Blues?

The one at bar 38, at 36 out of 100. 113 bars of 4/4 at a walking 100 BPM, 4:10 of playing, on crash, ride, snare and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 113 BARS ANALYSED