In this lesson you will be playing very short fills that cover just one eighth note. In that space you will either be playing two sixteenth notes or one eighth note on various parts of the kit.
The aim of this lesson is to familiarize you with the new fill length and to provide some ideas of how to construct these fills. Remember, the counting for the sixteenth notes will be '+ a'. Unless stated otherwise, use a single stroke sticking. As usual you will be presented the fill on its own followed by a four bar phrase that incorporates the fill.
Example 1
For the first fill play one eighth note on a tom, in this case the high tom.
Fill
Phrase
Example 2
The floor tom also works quite nicely.
Fill
Phrase
Example 3
Here you are playing two sixteenth notes on the snare.
Fill
Phrase
Example 4
This is example 3 played on the floor tom.
Fill
Phrase
Example 5
The final fill splits the two sixteenth notes between two drums.
Fill
Phrase
TASK:
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all fills up to a tempo of at least 120bpm.
- Get all four bar phrases up to a tempo of at least 120bpm.REMEMBER to practice repeating the phrases and eliminate any gaps in timing. A metronome is very useful for this.
- Use different grooves in each phrased example.
- Create your own short fills then apply them to a phrased example.
I recommend trying our A B Exercises Using Sixteenth Note Fills or A A A B Exercises Using Eighth Note Fills next.
