Principles of Orchestration - Fills

ALL IT TAKES IS ONE - Fills

Fills are simply short counterpoints that are usually transitional (but don't have to be). Defining a clear difference between a fill and a counterpoint is not really important. If you think of it as a fill, it's a fill.

For this clip, a lot of the fills could really be considered counterpoint instead. The snare, the cymbals and the triangle all repeat the same thing pretty much throughout the song and, really, I would think of them more as counterpoint because of that. However, they are also transitional - helping to move from phrase to phrase, etc... and so they are also fills from a certain point of view.

The clearest example of what I would think of as a fill in this piece is the short woodwind snippet in the middle and the harp gliss at the end. There is also a wood wind gliss that you hear on the end of one of the counterpoint clips that fades out that would clearly be a fill and isn't included here.

Fills are the little decorations. They add a lot to the piece in some cases. A blast of a few trumpet notes. A cymbal roll. A quick glissando. A drum roll. Etc., etc...

ALL IT TAKES IS ONE - Fills