Five Genius Charlie Watts Fills You hardly ever see “Charlie Watts” and “Drum Fills” in the same sentence. Discussions around him usually involve his groove, his feel, and the way he never plays his hi-hat with his backbeat. Rightfully so—as Watts had a one-of-a-kind approach to the instrument, and there’s a lot to learn from his playing. For this lesson, however, I wanted to take a deep dive into his drum fills—the patterns and orchestrations he used—in order to highlight some rare gems I found while listening to five early albums by the Rolling Stones—from Aftermath in 1966 to Sticky Fingers in 1971. As a result, it became clear what some of Watts’ go-to fills were, and the following five examples show up repeatedly in Rolling Stones songs with “straight” feels in 4/4. The examples here come from the band’s studio recordings. However, the Rolling Stones were definitely more of […]

October 2021 Issue