VANTABLACK · DRUM FILLS

The drum fills in Wreckage To Come

3 fills to learn, played 10 times across 67 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
150 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
67
LENGTH
1:47
DIFFICULTY
81/100

Bar 8, and 2 more times

LOOP · 150 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 8, 16 AND 57 · LANDS ON BAR 9

On hi-hat, snare and kick. 65 out of 100 -- demanding -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 9. 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 12

LOOP · 150 BPM
PLAYED AT BAR 12 · LANDS ON BAR 13

On crash, snare and kick. 74 out of 100 -- demanding -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for. In the song it lands on bar 13. 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 62, and 5 more times

LOOP · 150 BPM
PLAYED AT BARS 62-67

On crash, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 76 out of 100 -- demanding -- and what decides that is how many notes a second it asks for.

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 Wreckage To Come?

3 distinct fills, played 10 times: bars 8, 12, 16, 57 and 62-67.

What is the hardest fill in Wreckage To Come?

The one at bar 62, at 76 out of 100. 67 bars of 4/4 at 150 BPM, about 1:47 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 67 BARS ANALYSED