What is a drum fill?
A drum fill is a short, improvisational transition between parts a song, like a brief drum solo that fills a gap between musical phrases. Drum fills are an essential part of drumming, and they’re easy to master with practice.
How many drum fills are there?
You can play a drum fill for as long as you want, but there are three common durations for fills that you’ll hear regularly in rock music: the full bar (the longest), the half bar, and the quarter bar (the shortest). The main goal is to internalize the timing of these fills so you know when to start, and when to stop.
Why do drummers play drum fills?
They’re an excellent way to transition between feels or sections of a song, and they also work to keep the motion of music pressing forward. More often than not, a drum fill occurs at the very end of a musical phrase or section of a song, such as moving from a verse into a chorus.
How do drum fills work?
A drum fill is a short phrase dropped into the main groove of a drum track every eight or 16 bars (generally speaking) in order to energise the transition between sections of a song (verse to chorus, for example) or individual sub-sections within a section (bar 4 of the middle 8, for example.
Why are drum fills important?
It provides the pulse — the heartbeat — of each part of the song. Whenever you leave that drum beat to play something else, it’s considered a drum fill. Drum Fill: Something played that’s not part of the main drum beat for that particular section of the song.