In this lesson you will be applying the Two Feet Four Hands grouping exercise when constructing one bar fills. As this grouping is made up of six notes it will have a slightly syncopated feel to it, much like the similar lessons on fills using a One Bar 4 Hands 2 Feet and One Bar 2 Hands 4 Feet type pattern. The timing and sticking for this grouping has been covered in the exercise linked above, if you aren't familiar with this basic pattern you will need to have a look through that lesson first.
On this page you will be shown some common orchestrations of this exercise. As discussed in the lesson linked above, the full bar will be made up of two full occurances of the six note grouping which leaves a quarter note left at the end of the bar. For that last quarter note there is a little freedom in what you can play and I will show various ideas for this throughout the lesson.
It is essential with these kind of hand to foot groupings that all notes fall exactly in place, if they don't the part will end up sound sloppy and inaccurate. It would be well worth you spending some time playing the original exercise to a metronome and ensuring your placement is spot on before starting work on these fills.
Listed below are several ideas for short fills following this pattern, take each example as an idea for constructing your own fills. Mess around with the orchestrations, particularly of the last quarter note, and see what new patterns you can come up with.
Example 1
A straight forward orchestration where each grouping of hands is played on a different drum. Straight 16ths on the floor have been used for the last quarter note, giving you a roll over the two toms over beats 3 and 4.
Example 2
A variation on the fill above showing another option for the ending. This time a two feet - two hands grouping is used.
Example 3
In this fill the notes played on the hands are split between two different drums.
Example 4
A variation on the fill above where a flammed floor tom is used to end the fill.
Example 5
Using a 'triangle' style pattern over the toms. Notice that the same orchestration is used twice within the bar, this can add to the syncopated feel.
Example 6
A second 'triangle' shape with an orchestrated block of 16ths to end on.
Example 7
In this example I am showing how the grouping can be used without needing to be syncopated. Only one occurance of the six note grouping is used at the end of the bar and it starts on an '+' count.
Example 8
The same phrasing as the fill above is used here with a different orchestration.
Example 9
Continuing with the idea of moving where the fill starts, this time you play two occurances of the six note grouping but starting on beat 2 of the bar.
Example 10
A variation in orchestration of the phrasing given above.
TASK
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all examples up to a tempo of at least 150bpm.
- Add all fills to a structured piece.
- Create your own versions of these fills by coming up with new orchestrations or combining given parts.
- Experiment with constructing two bar fills either by using the same rhythm twice or by continuing the six bar pattern over the bar.
