Making Simple Drum Fills Less Predictable
Hey whats up drumming friend? I’m sure you’re feeling pretty good about all of the drum fills you’ve learned to play. Aside from being 1/8th notes, they had one other thing in common…they were all one full bar. It’s time to get creative with your timing and learn how to connect groove pattern to a shorter fill. This lesson is all about drum fills that start on beat 2. That means the drum fill itself will only be 3 beats (2,3 and 4). It’s a lot trickier than you think to play these fills and keep good musical time so we need to practice it. It is an especially important distinction to make when it comes to learning music.
I often have students learn a fill from a song and know how to play it on its own, but then stumble when they try to play it with music. This is usually because they aren’t jumping into the fill at the correct moment. As always, you need to count out loud so that your timing adds up correctly. The more you explore these basic fills, the sharper your ear will get at hearing when a fill begins. We’ll work on the first fill together so that I can show you how to connect it with a groove pattern, then we’ll practice it musically. When you’ve got he hang of it, its then up to you to practice all of the fills on the PDF!
Download the PDF: 1/8th Note Fills #2
There are 10 drum fills on this page to practice. Make sure you learn them all at various tempos; slow, medium and fast. Remember to practice them with different groove patterns. Choose a different groove for every two fills you learn and practice.
Fill on beat 2 played in a repeating 2-bar loop. This is the best way to learn any fill.
When a groove pattern has 2 Bass Drum notes on beat 1, they should both be played before a fill on beat 2.
The fill in bar 4 begins on beat 2. Notice that the groove pattern is continued on beat 1 of that bar.
The recommended tempo range is 50 and 120
Tempo: 50 bpm
Subdivision
1/8th Note Grooves #2
Its time to grow your knowledge of grooves. These groove patterns have a little more sauce for the Snare than just the basic 2 and 4 backbeat.
1/8th Note Fills #3
Can't get enough of these basic fills? Then why not learn even shorter ones? This is more challenging than it may seem. The fills in this lesson are half of a bar or less.
6/8 Grooves #1
Learn about playing music in another time signature. In this lesson we'll talk about playing grooves in 6/8 time.
When it count 1* 2*3* 4*
It starts from symbol or high hat ?
Hello Sung,
Good question. If you are referring to the bar that contains the drum fill, then you would begin that bar with the Hi-Hats (1 and) as well as the Bass Drum on beat 1. Then the drum fill should begin on beat 2. The Crash cymbal is only played at the beginning of the 4 bar exercise, which is what happens when you finish the fill because you would be repeating back to the beginning. I hope that answers your question. If not, please feel free to reply with more details.
Good luck!
Kevin