In the Air Tonight
Phil Collins · 1981
Home to arguably the most famous drum fill ever, a lesson in tension and payoff.
- Artist
- Phil Collins
- Year
- 1981
- Genre
- classic rock
- Drummer
- Phil Collins
- Tempo
- 96 bpm
- Time
- 4/4
- Feel
- atmospheric build to gated fill
- Difficulty
- intermediate
Drummer's Quick-Start
Practice tempos
The feel
A atmospheric build to gated fill in 4/4 around 96 BPM. A comfortable mid-tempo — lock the backbeat first, then shape the dynamics.
Form
Atmospheric Intro · Verse · Verse · Verse · Drum Fill (the famous fill) · Full-Band Groove · Outro
What to watch
- •Play to a metronome and prize consistency over speed — even time is the whole game.
How to learn it
Well-known tutorials exist for this one — use the links below, and play along from your own copy.
Generated from this song's groove profile — analysis only, no notation. A human-reviewed AI brief with a full groove breakdown, key moments and song map replaces this as briefs roll out.
Learn it
Find drum tutorials on YouTube ↗iDrum links to where lessons already live — we don't host recordings or publish transcriptions. Play along from your own music.
Discussion
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