DontRunMeOver

Kind of like Moses said, a fill is not the same as the normal beat of a song.

To start at the beginning... For most songs, you can count to four throughout the song (i.e. '1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4'). For this description I'll call each section of counting '1,2,3,4' a phrase. Some people would call it a bar but that wouldn't strictly be true, so for now its a phrase.

If you listen to a simple rock song, the higher, more metallic 'tap' or 'ding' sound that usually you hear playing the quickest, most regular beats is the cymbal - usually a hi-hat or ride cymbal.

You'll hear a deep thudding sound, usually on the first beat of each musical phrase and then maybe addition thuds at different points during each phrase. This thudding noise is the bass drum.

The last drum that you'll almost always hear is the one which makes a noise like a snap or crack, usually on the 3rd beat of each phrase. This is the snare drum.

Fills are most often played on the 4th beat of the phrase and tend to use a combination of the snare drum and tom drums, with a few cymbal and bass drum beats added for good measure. Tom drums make a mid-pitched 'boing' noise. One drumkit can have many tom drums attached, allowing for complicated fills, with lots of different pitches and tones involved.

If you listen to a song with a pretty simple drum beat then you'll usually be able to spot the fills, because they are the part where the snare drum departs from its usual regular beat and the tom drums suddenly jump in with their noises. Easiest of all, if you hear a little extra drumming on the 4th beat of a phrase, its probably a fill you're hearing.

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If you listen to the song "Backseat Retribution" on my band's webspace, there are definite fills after the 4th "just tear the place up" in the first verse and after the word "wayside" in the 1st bridge section (there are more further on, but these are obvious ones.

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