SENSES · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in tiptoeing

2 fills to learn, played 2 times across 72 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
116 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
72
LENGTH
2:29
DIFFICULTY
39/100

Bar 32

LOOP · 116 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 32 · LANDS ON BAR 33

On hi-hat, snare, floor tom and kick. 29 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 33. 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 · 116 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 64 · LANDS ON BAR 65

On snare and floor tom. 9 out of 100 -- straightforward -- 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 tiptoeing?

2 distinct fills, played 2 times: bars 32 and 64.

What is the hardest fill in tiptoeing?

The one at bar 32, at 29 out of 100. 72 bars of 4/4 at 116 BPM, about 2:29 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 72 BARS ANALYSED