Over the last couple of years, my primary instruments have drifted to steel guitar and hand percussion, rather than straight acoustic/electric guitar. I’ve also become much more active in group performance, rather than solo. This means that I’m often taking a supportive and decorative role, playing fills.
There’s a real art to playing good fills. The goal is not for the fills themselves to be interesting, but rather to decorate and enhance the primary voice of the performance – the singer, other soloists, the rhythm, whatever is central to the music. So it’s important to contrast the primary voice, rather than competing with it. Play in the gaps. And don’t overplay! This can be a real challenge as an improvisor… resisting the temptation to play too much.
I find it difficult sometimes to fill the gaps rather than playing along with the melody. That’s because when we hear the song, we hear the melody. As improvisors, that’s where we hear ourselves. But if that’s what you DO when playing fills, then you’re probably overplaying.
Phrasing and coloration become very important, too. Do you want to extend the harmony and rhythm, or reinforce it? And voicing matters… you should play in a range that is not competing tonally with more solidly rhythmic instruments.
And, uh… when I started writing this I thought I had a point. But I guess I’m just dancing about architecture. Sigh.