BLADE AND BATH · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Useless (Album Version)

2 fills to learn, played 2 times across 75 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
80 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
75
LENGTH
3:45
DIFFICULTY
44/100

Bar 54

LOOP · 80 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 54 · LANDS ON BAR 55

On crash, hi-hat, snare 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 55. 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 66

LOOP · 80 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 66 · LANDS ON BAR 67

On crash, snare and kick. 30 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 67. 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 Useless (Album Version)?

2 distinct fills, played 2 times: bars 54 and 66.

What is the hardest fill in Useless (Album Version)?

The one at bar 66, at 30 out of 100. 75 bars of 4/4 at a walking 80 BPM, 3:45 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 75 BARS ANALYSED