I'm a novice player and have just started working on putting simple fills in. I found two tutorials that use Banks of the Ohio and it's perfect as there is a full chuck/boom/chuck/boom between each line. A couple songs i practice backup and breaks on, Circle Be Unbroken and I Am a Pilgrim, only have one chuck/boom between each line.
Anyone have suggestions for easy standards with plenty of space for fills between lines?
Don't need notation or chords, I'll look them up. Don't need recordings unless they are slower tempos as most renditions will be to fast for me; I generally practice with strum machine.
-Ken
Have you checked out the Old Time Jam site?
oldtimejam.com/
Ky. Waltz
Tenn. Waltz
Maybe, Faded Love
Also, although it might be good to learn how to do, playing "fills" is something that can easily be overdone. If the vocalist is good, its often better just to lay back and let them express themselves.
Edited by - DougD on 04/26/2026 12:58:51
Id suggest not to worry about the fills just yet. Just playing the rests in the vocal part is a skill better learned when you have a good knowledge and feel for the chord structure on any vocal song and have a good library of licks and hooks to draw upon. You CAN play more fills then just the vocal rests, but taste, skill and ability is needed not to clash or work against the vocal track. FOr beginners I usually recommend simpler tunes that have 2 chords and no change on chorus, 'Jambalaya' comes to mind and similar. Work on fiddle breaks instead of fills. Little chunks of a good break can be used as fills throughout a song. Learn fiddle tunes. Learning melodic structure of fiddle tunes is going to give you lots of books to add to your licks and phrases library and those can be pulled out for fills.
Lots of ways to attack this, the above is just my opinon.
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