Filling in the Spaces: What are Drum Fills?

The drums in a band have the biggest influence over the ebb and flow of energy in music. One of the most valuable tools drummers have to handle that energy is the drum fill. While grooves establish the overall feel, drum fills often behave like a bridge between two ideas, or a way to chapter sections of an arrangement.

Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced drummer, any pattern can function as a drum fill in the right setting. We all know a drum fill when we hear one, but how do we know when it’s appropriate to play a fill? And how do we determine WHAT to play for a fill?

The term “fill” in music has a pretty loose definition, but I typically think of drum fills as a temporary deviation from the dominant groove or pattern. Drum fills can be as short as a half of a beat, or longer than an entire measure.

What Drum Fills Are NOT

Despite every teacher I had constantly repeating this sentiment, it took me years to truly understand the single most important thing about drum fills: they are not a chance for the drummer to show off. Yes, it’s extremely tempting to always bust out the fanciest chop you can think of, but that’s a selfish approach and almost always tramples over the music. More often than not, shorter and subtler drum fills better support the music. Knowing exactly when to place a fill, how long to play a fill for, and at what intensity to play a fill requires developing a higher level of musical sensibilities and vocabulary.

Their Purpose

Now that we know drum fills don’t exist to satisfy the drummer’s desire to be the center of attention, what’s their specific purpose? 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. While the specifics of fills are frequently improvised and determined by context, there are plenty of foolproof ideas to get you started creating your own fills.

Building Fills

We’ll begin by playing a fill that’s only 1 beat long and consists of 16th notes. The fill will occur on beat 4. Since fills typically happen at the very end of a phrase, we’ll first apply it to a short 2-measure framework. Play a simple rock groove, but once you get to beat 4 of the second measure, play 4 16th notes on the snare, and then return to the groove again (notated below).

When you feel comfortable playing the fill on just the snare drum, try to orchestrate the same rhythm over different drums. Explore different directions around the kit and various combinations of sounds to discover more possibilities using only this one pattern. Check out these variations for some inspiration.

Next, we’ll expand the fill so it takes 2 full beats consisting of 16th notes. The fill will begin on beat 3 of the second measure. Just like above, start simple by playing it on only the snare drum.

The extra beat allows for many more orchestration and phrasing options. Certain rudimental patterns also work very nicely as drum fills, and allow you to more easily move in certain paths around the drum set. Here are another few examples to get the juices flowing.

Following the same process, try beginning a fill on beat 2, or even try to piece together fills that take the space of an entire measure. Below are a few 4-beat phrases that can function in a wide range of musical settings.

While 16th note drum fills pair well with grooves built primarily on 8th and 16th notes, the rhythmic rate of fills should match the dominant feel (though it’s perfectly fine to bend that “rule” for dramatic effect). So if I’m playing a shuffle, I’ll default to playing fills based on a triplet rhythmic rate. Below are a few ways to apply simple triplet patterns to the drum set as fills.

Famous Examples

If you’d like some more inspiration, try learning some of the most well-known fills of all time. Below are a few examples of iconic drum fills.

Front and Center

One of the most famous drum fills of all time is played by Phil Collins during the song “In the Air Tonight.” For the first nearly 4 minutes of the song, there’s only ambient instrumentation under the lyrics. After the spacey synths and programmed percussion instill a sense of relaxed security, ultra punchy toms make a sudden entrance in one of the most epic music moments of all time. Those descending toms lead right into a hard-hitting groove, which wouldn’t have nearly the same momentum without the drum fill feeding into it. The video to the right is timestamped to begin just before the fill. Chances are, you’ve heard it before.

Another iconic drum fill appears at the very beginning of Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick.” John Bonham uses that fill to kick off the song, and again after his extended improvised solo (which would sometimes exceed 20 minutes during concerts!) to cue the rest of the band back in to finish out the tune. In this case, the other band members don’t even need to count time. They just have to wait for Bonham to play the fill again, signifying the end of his solo. In the below video, Bonham kicks off the tune at 0:12, and concludes his solo with the same fill at 14:22.

Filling Within the Groove

Those examples are perhaps slightly atypical in the sense that all attention shifts to the drummer and the fill becomes a highlight of the tune. More often than not, drum fills are more subtle and baked into grooves. Depending on the style of music, fills may blend seamlessly within grooves, blurring the lines between grooves and fills entirely.

John Bonham often played fills that were essentially ornamented grooves. (Can you tell that I like John Bonham’s drumming?) This snippet of the Led Zeppelin tune “Night Flight” is a great example of a drum fill that’s deeply embedded into the groove (at 1:06 in the video to the right). The hihats remain steady, but the kick and snare have a lot more 16th note activity surrounding the backbeats. It perfectly fills the space between the lyrics and doesn’t at all interfere with the groove.

Jazz music in particular allows for lots of creative freedom since the entire style is based upon improvisation. Harvey Mason’s performance on “Watermelon Man,” by Herbie Hancock, is essentially a masterclass on how to completely blend grooves and fills together. While there’s a dominant 16th note feel, Mason’s drumming seamlessly weaves between syncopated rhythms that align with the rest of the band, and rock solid grooving. His tasteful application of relatively simple rhythms has become a blueprint for more modern forms of funky jazz fusion drumming.

Checkpoints and Cues

Of course, there are plenty of times where the drummer can take some more liberties while remaining outside of the spotlight. Drum fills that have a bit more gusto can function as a cue to the other musicians that another part of the song is approaching.

Dave Grohl’s drumming on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (below left) contains fills that clearly mark the end of each section of the song and behave as a cue to move to the next part. In addition to the explosive fill during the intro, he played fills at the end of every verse and chorus, which gives the song a steady forward motion. The fills break away from the groove and are largely comprised of 16th note rhythms, but they maintain the high-energy feel of the song.

Chad Smith’s drumming on the 2006 rock anthem “Dani California” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (above right) is another solid example of using drum fills to provide cues to the other musicians and more distinctly separate each section of the song. Smith also regularly uses very short, subtle drum fills, such as opening the hihats on the ‘&’ of beat 4, or playing a short roll on the snare drum at the very end of a phrase. If you listen carefully, he almost always plays a small fill at the end of every other measure, but it never sounds too busy.

The Art of Mimicry

One of the best ways to continue expanding your vocabulary while developing your musical sensibilities and mobility around the drum set is to try to mimic drum fills from your favorite drummers and songs. Even if you don’t nail a fill exactly as you hear it on a recording, the process of attempting to replicate something almost always leads to more unique, original ideas. Eventually, you’ll be able to put your own personal spin on the vocabulary you absorb by reverse engineering drum fills.

Aside from imitating your favorite drummers and exploring various patterns and combinations, taking drum lessons from a professional is the most direct way to improve with an organized approach. The ability to improvise fills in any style of music requires an expansive vocabulary and refined musical sensibilities. A skilled teacher will help you construct a personalized plan to get you sounding better and having more fun on the drums based on your individual musical preferences and goals.

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