Merkaba

I'm making this thread for those who love music but know nothing about it. I post based on what I like when I listen to something, but I can't compare piece A with piece B because I know nothing about technicalities of music. For example why is Neil Peart better then John Bonham? I couldn't tell you, my answer would be such and such because he sounds better.

Some stuff is probably impossible to explain without having a basic understanding of an instrument in the first place, but for those that know their stuff, would you mind helping some of the less informed out a bit.

Things like Scales. And Time Signatures, I know what 4/4 is but I'm not too sure about things like 7/8 or 11/8? Those sorts of things. Also "fills" with drumming etc etc.

Basically, for those that can, can we make this the Music Dictionary.

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bungalow

I was actually going to make a thread exactly like this. The only problem is, when someone begins to explain it all, it will undoubtably go over my head (and maybe yours too)

Merkaba

Haha thats what I was getting at with this part:
Perhaps the ones that do know their stuff, please define things as if your trying to explain something to a 4 year old.

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bungalow

Yeah, I play the guitar, and I'm not too bad at it, but I'll be damned if I can explain what mixolydian means, or playing in the 'key of g' or any other lingo that theorists use.

mosesandtherubberducky

When you are playing in the key of something you are playing in the notes from that scale. Like most of the White Stripes' songs are in the key of A if you look at the chords used and look at the notes in the major scale all of the chords should be in the major scale (going by root notes of the chord) oh and a drum fill is exactly what it is. A fill, it fills in space and can sound pretty cool. Normally it is a couple of hits on each drum head with out cymbols.

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Crawldaddy

lol I've been playing for years, and although I can do solos, I have no idea how I managed to do it (which so far has been in the major/minor pentatonic scale).. probably due to musical influence? I love Led Zep and AC/DC.. maybe that rubbed off me.

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Merkaba

Cheers moses, thats pretty simple isn't it. Hey so how do you know when they're doing a fill, is it just whenever they're holding that steady rhythm until like a chorus or something?

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mosesandtherubberducky

Fills are not on the normal tempo of a song. They can be up-tempo or down-tempo. I can't think of a song right now that would have lots of them but the are present.

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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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draxus

No, a fill is when a drummre makes a beat or rythem that sounds similer to the guitar part but has a lot of different beats in it. Like you cant even hear the drums b/c they sound too much like the guitar, see, its that simple