Phil Collins · 1981 · drums by Phil Collins
In the Air Tonight
From Face Value. Beginner · Straight · pop
Tempo
95BPM
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Feel
- Straight
- Tempo band
- 90–120
- Difficulty
- Beginner
"Work up to it" opens the tempo trainer at 65 and climbs to 95 in steps of four every eight bars. Members get the climb; everyone gets the click. "Play the groove" opens the beat itself in the Groove Lab, as closely as a sixteenth grid can hold it.
What the drums do
Three and a half minutes of drum machine, then the fill: sixteenth notes down the toms into the gated-reverb backbeat that defined the decade. The fill itself is simple. What matters is the wait, and that the beat after it is enormous and does not speed up.
Beginner: A steady beat and a fill or two — first-gig material.
Phil Collins
- Read the Phil Collins feature →Who they are, how they play, and what to listen to next.
- Phil Collins's drum rig in the Rig Vault →The kit, snare, cymbals and hardware, era by era — look for the 1981 setup.
- Log the sessionNote the BPM you got it clean at, and next time starts from there.
More Phil Collins songs
All 4 Phil Collins songs at tempo →
- Sussudio121
- Easy Lover129
- Turn It On Again128
Songs at about 95 BPM
Practise these together: one click, several songs.