Just what you need to feel better...

beatdat

Senior Member
Just what you need to make you feel better...

Most of us know to sing "Pat Boone, Debbie Boone" and other vocalizations for various drum fills and patterns.

One fill that has always given me a difficult time to feel and play properly is the Phil Collins fill in "In the Air Tonight", which is based on Ex. 65 from the Single Beat Combinations section of Stone's Stick Control.

But, I was listening to the Alan Parsons Project's "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether" the other day and noticed that, not only is the pattern a common motif throughout the song, it's also accompanied by the lines:

Just what you need to make you feel better,
Just what you need to make you feel good,

which I noticed line up with the hits for this fill. So I practiced the fill using this song in mind, and it helped me immensely to getting the feel right.

So, if this fill is giving you a difficult time to feel and play properly, put on the song and play along to it.

Hopefully, it'll help.
 
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This is an interesting concept. I frequently watch a guitarist on YouTube (Stevie T) and he does this with riffs. I thought he was just being silly, as most of his stuff is, but I guess this is a real thing. Wish I had known about this earlier. If something needs a go-by for me, my default method is clicking the rhythm with my teeth. Probably not the best idea, but I have been doing it forever. Singing words makes more sense.
 
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