VERSAILLES · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Vampire

2 fills to learn, played 9 times across 128 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
117 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
128
LENGTH
4:22
DIFFICULTY
82/100

Bar 55

LOOP · 117 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 55 · LANDS ON BAR 56

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 85 out of 100 -- hard -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet. In the song it lands on bar 56. 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 121, and 7 more times

LOOP · 117 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 121-128

On crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom and kick. 87 out of 100 -- hard -- and what decides that is the independence between the hands and the feet.

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 Vampire?

2 distinct fills, played 9 times: bars 55 and 121-128.

What is the hardest fill in Vampire?

The one at bar 121, at 87 out of 100. 128 bars of 4/4 at 117 BPM, about 4:22 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 128 BARS ANALYSED