Bars and fills
Counting in bars, and the short drum moves that tie them together.
Lesson 5 of 9
A bar (or measure) is a group of beats. In most popular music a bar has four beats, which is why musicians count “one, two, three, four” and start over.
This grid is two bars long. The first bar is a plain beat; the second ends with a quick run of snares, and a crash marks the start of the next pass.
Two bars
Count along: one, two, three, four, two, two, three, four.
| Kick | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snare | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Closed hat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crash |
Bars group into longer phrases, usually of 4, 8 or 16 bars, and songs change sections at those boundaries. Listeners feel these groups without counting, which is why a change after 7 bars instead of 8 sounds surprising.
Fills
A fill is a short break from the pattern at the end of a phrase: a burst of snares, a roll down the toms, or simply a gap. It tells the listener that something new is about to start. In this grid the last beat of the second bar is empty, waiting for your fill.
Write a fill
Try the high tom on the last four steps, then move the last two down to the low tom.
| Kick | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snare | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Closed hat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Low tom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| High tom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crash |
Keep fills short to start with: one beat is plenty. The longer the fill, the bigger the change it promises.