'So Happy' 332 Based Fill

In this lesson I will be showing a fill inspired by a small section of the song So Happy by the band Theory Of A Deadman. The fill in question can be heard at around 1:31 in the video linked. The fill is built around a simple eighth note 332 Rhythm that is orchestrated in a specific movement split between snares combined with crashes and kick drums. It is important you are familiar with the '332' concept linked above as I won't be exaplining what that means on this page.

The intention of this lesson is to provide some more fill construction ideas for that '332' style syncopated rhtyhm and as well as showing the extract from the song I will also give some variations on it. The movements and orchestrations in the fill are actually pretty straight forward, the important part here is understand the rhythm.

I will start by giving the rhythm for the fill. It is just crotchets and quavers so shouldn't be too hard to follow but I have included counting and phrase markings underneath to highlight the '332' rhtyhm.

The rhythm for the fill

So as you can see, the '2' of the 332 is actually cut short to one crotchet. Make sure you understand what is happening with the rhythm and the groupings are comfortable. The next step is to replace two of those snares with bass drums. This will happen on the third eighth note of each sub grouping, so you will have two hands followed by a foot. That would look like this:

The rhythm for the fill with added kick

For now the sticking of the snares isn't important, what you need to be focusing on is the placement of the bass drums. Spend some time playing this a long with a metronome make sure the bass drums fall exactly on the count they are supposed to. You may need to start slowly to achieve this.

To create the full fill you will be adding some cymbals with the snare drums. The orchestration will be the same for both of the longer grouping and will be played as a snare and hi hat followed by a snare and crash followed by that kick shown above. The final quarter note will be hit as a snare and floor tom. The left hand will remain on the snare whilst the right moves around those other parts of the kit. This is shown below and is the full extract from the song.

The 'So Happy' 332 fill

Make sure you can play this fill upto a tempo of around 135bpm, which is the tempo of the song. As mentioned above, it is of the upmost importance that the bass drums fall exactly where they need to. If they split out of time a little the whole part will sound sloppy and you really don't want that. If you struggle with this placement it might be worth having a look at This Kick Placement Exercise.

When you are comfortable with the fill I have included three variations on the orchestration below. These use the same rhythm and sticking as the original part.


Variation 1

A variation on the So Happy fill.


Variation 2

A variation on the So Happy fill.


Variation 3

A variation on the So Happy fill.


TASK

  1. Using the 2 minute rule, get all examples up to a tempo of at least 135bpm.
  2. Add each example into a structured pattern.
  3. Create your own fill pattern using this concept.

Lessons

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