Comments on Drum Fills the Cheetah

Drum rolls are the most important thing that have happened in the history of music.

It's like the dunk to basketball.

The post-intro roll into verse 1 of XTC's "That Wave." Dave Mattacks kills it with a riveted-china crash on the downbeat. So nice...

Yes, drum rolls KICK ASS. Most music would suck without them.

Brent Amaker

The Terri Bozzio fills on Missing Person' Spring Session M + the "Mental Hopscotch" single has done it for me for over 20 years.

Are we talking about drum rolls, or fills? Sorry, just trying to get it straight. They both rule.

I saw Peart in NYC about 3 years ago. His kit rotated. I think there was a cheetah in there too.

I think we are talking about fills. But for me, fills and rolls I think are the same thing.

The fill vs. the roll is a good question. I am such a nerd, what can I say? I went googling.

From Dave Bedrock's American Drum School:

"CLASSIC" Rock's CLASSIC DRUM FILL

What is a drum fill? Simply put, it is a short rhythmic idea played by the drummer to fill a space at the end of a vocal or instrumental phrase. The most basic drum fill is derived from a single stroke roll played around the whole drum set (snare, small tom, medium tom, floor tom). It is simply sixteenth notes played four on each drum. Practice these slow at first, thinking about your hand and stick position when moving from drum to drum."

There are some pulse-accelerating rolls in the Sweet's "The Ballroom Blitz," which was about the greatest song to hear when you're 12-13.

Similarly to "Instant Karma", there is an awesome fill in Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me". The song swings, but the fill in the middle is a straight-sixteenth run from the snare down the toms. Genius. Sadly, every karaoke version that I have heard has a swinging triplet fill in place of the aforementioned awesome. Bogus.

The Greatest Drumroll? "In the Air Tonight" -- Phil Collins. Starts out quiet, Crockett and Tubbs, looking grim, on their way to a gun battle with some Columbians. Then the drummer kicks it and all hell breaks loose.

dave grohl in that one Queens of the stone age song that the radio liked for a while. allow me to demonstrate:

bblapatuh-blupputah-blapatuh-blupputuh!

or whenever bonham plays over the bar line.

drumrolls sound like rain coming down on a roof, done on a snare drum usually. fills, more specifically, roundhouse fills-like neil pearts-are when a drummer plays all his toms/drums in order, really fast!