# The drum fill

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [July 24, 2017, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002 "2017-07-24T03:14:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/104 "2021-06-08T02:04:40Z")

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And another one – maybe I’m the only one who enjoys this fill – is on Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me.” The whole song has a triplet/shuffle feel to it. As is to be expected, in all the verses, Liberty DiVitto finishes the musical thought with your typical triplet tom fills; however at the end of the B section, he snakes back into the verses with a straight sixteenth note roll on the toms, which is a bit unexpected against the triplet pulse of the song. I hear triplets over eight notes often enough in rock music that it is a bit of a cliche, but I don’t very ofter hear fours in a triplet-based/shuffle groove. It’s a nice bit of rhythmic color that gives the song a feel of accelerating into the A section before hitting the brakes. (And like Stewart Copeland, in the example above, he ends the fill without slamming emphatically on a cymbal or otherwise over-emphasizing the one – but this song isn’t really full of crashes, anyway.)

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/XEm3Kx7bAxo/maxresdefault.jpg "Billy Joel - It's Still Rock And Roll To Me (Audio)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEm3Kx7bAxo)

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**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/105 "2021-07-21T16:19:19Z")

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Nice ones, puly.

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/106 "2021-07-21T17:24:22Z")

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Stewart Copeland is The Master of the Hi-Hat. He is a longtime fav drummer of mine, for all the reasons you listed, **puly** , but also because he just has an amazing “feel” for the music.

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**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/107 "2021-07-21T17:33:51Z")

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FWIW, here’s one person’s faves. (Rick Beato’s second “What Makes This Song Great” — the series is now at 105 installments — was “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” which I mentioned very early in this thread for that fill near the end I’ve air-drummed to a hundred times and still don’t get right).

[TOP 20 DRUM FILLS OF ALL TIME - YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WPRsLsPzudo)

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