All-Time Air-Drumming Fills (s/d c/d)

1) phil collins - in the air tonight (c'mon)
2) phil collins - abacab (2:38)
3) alex van halen - i'll wait (3:31)

this is just off the top of my head; also i am not a drummer and these do not necessarily involve technical skill but i think you know what i mean

list them all

even if they're all bernard purdy

4) Don Henley - Hotel California

5) my bloody valentine, "nothing much to lose", right at the beginning and throughout

i have to say, i do not air drum - i thigh drum, and i do it the point of bruising

fair; with my best drummer friend it involved smiting every single portion of a hyundai dashboard

this sounds like total bullshit, and it may be, but apparently in high school my steering wheel fell off after i hit it so hard. the sad thing is i was probably totally wasted (while driving country roads. i was and am a bad person) so i really don't remember, but people tell me this story like they saw it happen

full circle, during that time i probably would have been steering wheel drumming to "everlong"

Kashmir
You Shook Me All Night Long

There’s a yo la tengo one that works for me. At the beginning of Sugarcube, I think.

steve shelley's rim clicks in the middle of teenage riot when it's rebooting

stickclicks, rather

When the drums come in on "Good Vibrations".

Van Halen’s “drop dead legs” right before the second verse.

4) Don Henley - Hotel California

Nicko's coast to coast tom fills on "the Trooper".

Angel of Death is my personal go-to, good calf exercise

The Alphonse Mouzon sample at the beginning of Shake Your Rump by the Beastie Boys.

https://youtube/cZYa_KfLTtM

xpost I'd like to see someone air drum that and not hurt themselves.

20th century drumming has seven or possibly eight moments of transcendent perfection.

Two are from Motown. One is the Benny Benjamin-style pickup (see the beginning of "Ain't too Proud to Beg," but repeated elsewhere).

Two are from "Fool in the Rain," remarkably placed within a few seconds of one another.

You know that part of Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain" where they come out of the silly Latin section back into the main piano riff and there's like a steadily rising drum roll and

One is "In the Air Tonight," but I have mixed feelings about it. It is very dramatic, and achieves its intended effect perfectly. But I submit to you that it suffers ever-so-slightly because it lacks inventiveness. "Wow, seems I have four rack toms. What if I hit each one twice in a descending pattern?"

It did not take a great mind to come up with the idea - it took a great mind to realize that this one simple idea was sufficient to make an iconic moment. Personally I feel there is an even better drum "Phil" later in the song during the fade - that does a cool rushing-then-bleeding thing. But all anyone remembers is doo doo / doo doo / doo doo / doo doo / etc.

The other two perfect moments are from Richard Starkey but I haven't decided which ones yet.

For context, my favorite fills are often the least technical ones! Even in "Abacab," the sloppiest ones are the tastiest. Just before the vocals enter, three quarter notes: whap whap whap ksssh, "Look up on the wall..." There's another right before the fade.

On further thought I am being too narrow. "No Reply at All" has a few gems as well. I could probably do a thread just on Collins, another on Bonham.

Mitch Mitchell has several all-time greats just in "Wind Cries Mary."

I have sporadically table drummed the intro drumroll to Peaches En Regalia at school and office desks, dining tables and any nearby inanimate object for near to three quarters of my life at this point.

Judas Priest - "Painkiller"

“good times bad times”

this sounds like total bullshit, and it may be, but apparently in high school my steering wheel fell off after i hit it so hard. the sad thing is i was probably totally wasted (while driving country roads. i was and am a bad person) so i really don't remember, but people tell me this story like they saw it happen

― typo hell #12: a hundreds of millions of people (Karl Malone), Friday, October 8, 2021 2:40 AM (eleven hours ago)

Won't Get Fooled Again

Neil Peart needs his own thread, but three that come to mind:

Spirit of Radio (intro to verse)
Tom Sawyer (series at the end of the solo before back into the verse)
Limelight (the end)

Admittedly not a big Peart stan

To the extent I enjoy his work it is more about grooves than fills

That's his particular genius, imo. It's about the arrangements, the precision, kind of like an orchestral percussionist.
Like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HXrU2p8e5U

The fill when the drums enter in Radiohead’s Exit Music are ripe for air drumming.

The intro to Poison Idea's 'Just To Get Away'

intro to Pink Floyd's "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk"

The solo fills leading into the bridge in "Jack and Diane."

the first one that popped into my head is 'sister christian' based entirely on ten seconds of air keyboard into air drums from this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGp-4NP76MM

“Vanishing Girl” by the Dukes of Stratosphear, first shows up about 50 seconds in.

"making plans for nigel" is also a good one

"dreaming" by blondie, the drums are pretty much the lead instrument on that song

The fills with toms earlier in the song are more impressive but I can't resist miming the cheeky snares towards the end of Can's Moonshake.

xp: oh fucking definitely. clem burke is amazing.

Eye of the tiger

INXS - never tear us apart

Steely Dan - Green Earrings also has some cool ones for the more advanced air drummer.

And Aja

Neil Peart needs his own thread, but three that come to mind:

Spirit of Radio (intro to verse)
Tom Sawyer (series at the end of the solo before back into the verse)
Limelight (the end)

― Hannibal Lecture (PBKR)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jSdyDt-Ync

Steely Dan - Green Earrings also has some cool ones for the more advanced air drummer.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, October 8, 2021 2:30 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

purdie's fill heading out of the bridge and into guitar solo #1 is incredible, but idk how i'd even begin to air drum that one lol (especially since a lot of it seems to be played with the feet!)

xp there you go

purdie's fill heading out of the bridge and into guitar solo #1 is incredible, but idk how i'd even begin to air drum that one lol (especially since a lot of it seems to be played with the feet!)

― grove street (party) direction (voodoo chili),

Can’t find one of green earrings but Aja is achievable if you know Kung Fu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE4RRhvm-Jk

thank you for this

lol, the air drummer on that is totally me. when you play the aja solo you are legally obligated to make those "gently astonished at yourself" faces

I can't remember where I read it, but the story I heard was that Steve Gadd was brought in for the "Aja" sessions and recorded the title track in maybe one take, before he even heard Wayne Shorter's part. Gadd then moved on to another session somewhere else. Some time later Gadd (who was at the height of his self-destructive years) was invited back by the Dan to hear how the "Aja" was coming along, and after they played him the track he was impressed and asked who the drummer was. Their jaws dropped and they said "it's you!" Gadd apparently laughed and said "I'm a real motherfucker," then left.

When the drums finally kick in on Pink Floyd’s “Time”

Joy Division's Atmosphere.

The fills in Aenima by Tool (and 46 & 2). All of Demon Cleaner by Kyuss (and the opening to 50 Million Year Trip).

Beatles - Sgt. Pepper
Jorge Ben - Umbabarauma
And "Born on the Bayou" if the start counts as a drum fill

halleluwah

I'm always compelled to copy Dinger's little cymbal washes in Isi.

When the drums finally kick in on Pink Floyd’s “Time”

fair but i think it's more important to know exactly when to pluck those two earlier high air guitar notes

When the drums finally kick in on Pink Floyd’s “Time”

Wait, you don't air-drum the whole roto-tom intro?

stairway, though

assuming one remembers laughter

Every fill on The Fall's Live at the Witch Trials

Andy Anderson on “One Hundred Years” and “The Walk” - The Cure, Concert

Bonhams opening to Moby Dick. He goes 3 instead of 4 on the last measure before the riff

Chad Smith snare fill leading into Give It Away