Fill placement

[eugenio]

Hey everyone. I would like to know your concepts and any knowledge on fill placement. I am trying to strip my playing down and rebuild it in a way that compliments the players around me. All ideas welcome......Thanks

[drumzalicious]

well one guideline is to do fills where there are spaces in the music....

[QCdrummer]

lol, a very simple answer drumzalicious. But he's on point. After you establish your pocket for the song, you will notice those spaces he is talking about. Those spaces are where you throw in your fills.

Now if your just starting, keept it simple. When you feel those spaces coming, throw something in there, then go back to your pocket.

[eugenio]

Could you give an example?

[QCdrummer]

sure, this is just something I came across when I went to youtube and typed in "drum fill". Now when you look, at the beggining he establishes his pocket, then at :24 seconds, he does his fill. Then at :27 seconds, he goes back into his intial pocket.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OszY0mdOUVI

[edough]

this will get you started... play simple pocket groove

count in 8th  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &....
key is to count outloud.. start fill on 1 then on & of 1, start fill on 2 then on the & of 2 etc... end fill on the 1 of the measure 2. 
Then you can do over the bar fills.. example.. start fill on the & of 2 carry over end fill on the 2 of measure 2.  Count outloud it will make sense..
count in 16ths 1e&a 2e&a 3e&a 4e&a... Do the same as above...

hope this helps...

[eugenio]

Thanks guys. That last exercise sounds great edough. I would like to extend my question a little more and ask how do you know where those spaces are when playing to music? What things can I listen out for?

[fretai03]

Thanks guys. That last exercise sounds great edough. I would like to extend my question a little more and ask how do you know where those spaces are when playing to music? What things can I listen out for?

Verse [space]
Chorus [space]
Verse [space]
Chorus [space]
Bridge [space]
Chorus [space]
End

... is probably the easiest example of spaces in a song.

[SabianKnight]

Thanks guys. That last exercise sounds great edough. I would like to extend my question a little more and ask how do you know where those spaces are when playing to music? What things can I listen out for?

edough hit on some good stuff.

Practice your grooves in 4,8,12 bar phrases and add fills to the last bar of the phrase to set up the next phrase. The fills are only meant to "set up" or signal a change in he musical landscape.  Start with 1 beat fills say on the 4th beat of the last bar example 4e&... work your way up to beat (the entire bar). Vary the patterns/pharsing of those fills from the most simple to the mot complex.

Overall listen for the beginning of the melody phrases of the other instrument and strive to compliment and/or accentuate their musical statement... like how we amen the preacher. Communication and feedback. In general most of th music we hear in America ad the western world is base in arious phrases of 4... 4/4 time signtures and 4-bar and multiples of 4-bar phrases (1234, 124, 1234, 1234 {fill/set up here} next phrase begins).

[Vangie D]

for real thanks edough.