In this fill idea you will be re-orchestrating the fill construction idea covered in our Single Stroke Four Ending On A Kick to creates a very commonly used, great sounding fill. Before working through these fills I recommend covering both our Level 1 Hand Independence and Level 2 Hand Independence exercises.
The general idea for this fill has been shown already in Step 4 - Orchestration 3 in the lesson linked above. What I will be showing in this lesson is some more specific uses of this shape, which I generally refer to as the Triangle Shape due to the way the notation looks. You will notice in the examples below that I haven't just repeated the shape several times to create a full bar fill. Instead, I have shown how to combine this shape with other fill construction ideas to create slightly more complex fills.
In the examples below two versions of this shape have been used. One which ends on a floor tom and one which ends on a kick. For reference these are shown below with the floor tom version on the left and the kick version on the right.
Listed below are some ideas for how to apply this shape to your parts. A note is included in each example explaining what is happening.
Example 1
Here the floor tom version of the shape is used followed by a run of sixteenths. When played twice this creates a full bar fill and can also obviously be used easily as a half bar fill. The sixteenth notes could easily be re orchestrated and different rhythmic groupings also make some interesting parts.
Example 2
This is a similar construction idea to that presented above. This time the group of sixteenth notes is played first followed by the triangular single stroke four orchestration. The ending on a kick version is used here. As above, this is very easy to create variations on. Mess around with the rhythm and orchestration of the four sixteenth notes and extend to various other lengths.
Example 3
This example demonstrates a particularly useful feature of ending on a kick. You will notice on beat three the shape is used followed by a flam. This is very easy to play as the eighth note kick gives a lot of space to get the hands into the flam position. I have shown this as part of a full bar fill but again, it could be applied in many different ways. Experiment with different orchestrations, rhythms and combinations with grooves and fills.
Example 4
In this fill the given pattern is used in a slightly different way. Rather than being used in the middle of another fill pattern, it is now used as a lead in to a full bar fill. To acheive this the placement of the rhythm is altered slightly, notice how it starts on the '+' count rather than on the beat? This could also be done on the '+' after beat 2 when used in a half bar fill.
Example 5
Again, in this example I am showing another way the fill can be applied outside of a general fill. Here you are using it as a 'kick in'. This is a nice way to start your part rather than just coming straight in with the groove.
Example 6
This is a slightly longer kick in idea.
TASK
- Using the 2 minute rule, get the final orchestration pattern up to a tempo of at least 130bpm.
- Play a four bar pattern that consists of three bars of grooves followed by a fill shown above.
- Create your own variations on the given parts.
