FIONA APPLE · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in To Your Love

2 fills to learn, played 6 times across 109 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
109
LENGTH
3:38
DIFFICULTY
41/100

Bar 56, and 4 more times

LOOP · 120 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 56-60 · LANDS ON BAR 61

On crash, hi-hat, snare and kick. 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 61. 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 89

LOOP · 120 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 89 · LANDS ON BAR 90

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 58 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 90. 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 To Your Love?

2 distinct fills, played 6 times: bars 56-60 and 89.

What is the hardest fill in To Your Love?

The one at bar 89, at 58 out of 100. 109 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 3:38 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 109 BARS ANALYSED