# Fills

A fill says something is about to change. The hard part is arriving back on beat 1
exactly on time. The right hand leads, and the hands take turns down the toms, so
that hand is free for the crash.

## One-beat fill (beat 4)

    hat    x - x - x - x - x - x - - - - -
    tom1   - - - - - - - - - - - - - o - -
    tom2   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o -
    tom4   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o
    snare  - - - - o - - - - - - - o - - -
    kick   o - - - - - - - o - - - - - - -

The hat stops. The right hand was playing it, and that hand leads. The hands
take turns: right on the snare, left on the high tom, right on the mid tom, left
on the floor tom. The floor tom sits outside the right leg, so the left hand
reaches for it. Say the hand with the word. Left-handed, mirror the hands. The
crash stays with the hand that was on the hat.

Count it as "four-ee-and-a". Four strokes, one beat, no more. Most fills that go
wrong are a fill that would not fit.

## Landing

The point of a fill is the beat after it. The crash is the right hand. It can
land on 1 because the floor tom was the left. If the crash is late, the fill was
too full — take a note out rather than hurrying. An empty last sixteenth is
invisible; a late beat 1 is the most audible mistake a drummer can make.

## Which toms

A fill runs down the toms on the kit: high tom, mid tom, floor tom. On the staff
they sit in the top space, on the fourth line and in the second space (see the
staff key on Reading and playing your first groove). The recording has a fourth tom
that sits too close to the mid tom: walking all four sounds like three steps and a
repeat, so this room leaves it out. The hands stay right, left, right, left.