The exercises given in this lesson will be similar to our A B Exercises Using Three Quarter Bar Eighth Note Fills but the eighth notes will now be switched to sixteenths, giving the part a slightly quicker feel. As in the previous lesson, the aim here is to improve your ability to switch from groove to fill and back again without any breaks in timing. If you have covered the lesson linked above this should be pretty straight forward and you will also be learning some very common fills.
In previous lessons we discussed that a 'three quarter bar fill' was one that filled three beats worth of a 4/4 bar. So you get one beat of groove followed by the fill. This length of fill isn't quite as common but is still pretty cool sounding.
As with all of these phrasing and fill application lesson, it is important you play the exercises along to a metronome to ensure your are getting the timing right. The main aim of this lesson is to work on getting rid of any gaps when transitioning from groove to fill and back again, so this should be your primary focus. If at any point you find your self struggling with an exericse it may be worth learning the fill separately before attempting to play the full two bar pattern.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
TASK:
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all phrases up to a tempo of at least 120bpm.
- Create your own versions of these patterns by varying the orchestration of the fill and the groove.
Up Next
I recommend trying our A A A B Exercises Using Sixteenth Note Fills next.
