Fill (music)

In popular music, a fill is a short musical passage, riff, or rhythmic sound which helps to sustain the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody. "The terms riff and fill are sometimes used interchangeably by musicians, but [while] the term riff usually refers to an exact musical phrase repeated throughout a song", a fill is an improvised phrase played during a section where nothing else is happening in the music. While riffs are repeated, fills tend to be varied over the course of a song. For example, a drummer may fill in the end of one phrase with a sixteenth note hi-hat pattern, and then fill in the end of the next phrase with a snare drum figure. In drumming, a fill is defined as a "short break in the groove--a lick that 'fills in the gaps' of the music and/or signals the end of a phrase. It's kind of like a mini-solo. A fill may be played by rock or pop instruments such as the electric lead guitar or bass, organ, or drums, or by other instruments such as strings or horns. In blues or swing-style scat singing, a fill may even be sung. In a hip-hop group, a fill may consist of rhythmic turntable scratching performed by a DJ.

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a drum stick, to produce sound. There is usually a resonance head on the underside of the drum, typically tuned to a slightly lower pitch than the top drumhead. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the thumb roll. Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

Drums may be played individually, with the player using a single drum, and some drums such as the djembe are almost always played in this way. Others are normally played in a set of two or more, all played by the one player, such as bongo drums and timpani. A number of different drums together with cymbals form the basic modern drum kit.

Drum!

DRUM! is a North American educational drumming magazine. It features artist profiles, product reviews, lessons and advanced transcriptions covering rock, pop and related styles of music. The magazine was launched in 1991 with Andy Doerschuk as editor. In the 1990s it gained a reputation for its coverage of younger drummers in contemporary styles such as punk, rap-rock, and metal. It was the first magazine to feature artists such as Tré Cool (Green Day), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Travis Barker (Blink-182) and others on its covers.

Contents

A typical issue of DRUM! includes artist features and in-depth stories on topics such as playing techniques or new products. Additionally, it includes reviews of new recordings and drum products (cymbals, drums, hardware), short news items, career and health tips, and challenging lessons.

History

The magazine was started by Andy Doerschuk, Phil Hood, and Connie Hood in 1991. The first issue appeared in September, 1991, with Charlie Benante of the band Anthrax and session drummer Joe Franco on the cover. At the time it was a tabloid-sized magazine that was distributed free musical equipment stores and record shops within California. In 1996 the magazine converted to a conventional glossy format and began global distribution. Today it is available in 24 countries worldwide, with more than 90 percent of copies going to Canada, Australia and the U.S.

Drum (2004 film)

Drum is a 2004 film based on the life of South African investigative journalist Henry Nxumalo, who worked for the popular Drum magazine, called "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa." It was director Zola Maseko's first film and deals with the issues of apartheid and the forced removal of residents from Sophiatown. The film was originally to be a six-part television series called Sophiatown Short Stories, though Maseko could not get the funding. The lead roles of Henry Nxumalo and Drum main photographer Jürgen Schadeberg were played by American actors Taye Diggs and Gabriel Mann, while most of the rest of the cast were South African actors.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2004, and proceeded to do the rounds of international film festivals before going on general release in South Africa in July 2006. It was released in Europe, but failed to get a distributor for the USA where it went straight to DVD.

The film was generally well received critically. Most of the negative reviews were based on the quality of Maseko's directing and Jason Filardi's screenwriting. It was awarded Best South African Film at the Durban International Film Festival, and director Maseko gained the top prize at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO).

Fillé

Fillé is a commune in the Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region in north-western France.

See also

References

Fill (archaeology)

In archaeology a fill is the material that has accumulated or has been deposited into a cut feature such as ditch or pit of some kind of a later date than the feature itself. Fills are an important part of the archaeological record as their formation and composition can throw light on many aspects of archaeological study.

Primary fills

Primary fill like so many other terms in archaeology can have several different but allied meanings. Used singularly it denotes the context that first appears in the sequence after the context representing the cut it "fills". In many cases this will be a silt or naturally accumulating material that forms in the base of some hole or trench before its function is realized. For example, a medieval rubbish pit may be open for some time before rubbish is placed in it allowing natural processes to silt up the base, but the interpretation may mark the end of a cut feature's use. Similarly, a ditch that silts up by neglect could represent the start of the end of the features function in the record. Secondary and subsequent fills all form above the primary fill. Primary fills, used in the plural sense, tend to denote all the fills within a feature that are sealed by layer(s) possibly representing a change in phase or function.

Cut and fill

In earthmoving, cut and fill is the process of constructing a railway, road or canal whereby the amount of material from cuts roughly matches the amount of fill needed to make nearby embankments, so minimizing the amount of construction labor.

Overview

Cut slopes are rarely created greater than a slope of two to one (horizontal to vertical dimensions). Cut sections of roadway or rail are characterized by the roadway being lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain. From an operational standpoint there are unique environmental effects associated with cut sections of roadway. For example, air pollutants can concentrate in the ‘'valleys'‘ created by the cut section. Conversely, noise pollution is mitigated by cut sections since an effective blockage of line of sight sound propagation is created by the depressed roadway design.

Fill section

Fill sections manifest as elevated sections of a roadway or trackbed. Environmental effects of fill sections are typically favorable with respect to air pollution dispersal, but in the matter of sound propagation, exposure of nearby residents is generally increased, since sound walls and other forms of sound path blockage are less effective in this geometry.