In this lesson you will be learning about half bar fills. A half bar fill in 4/4 will take up two beats worth of music and this will be the second two beats (counts 3 and 4). The first half of the bar will usually be filled with groove. These patterns will be very similar to our Full Bar Eighth Note Fills. 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.
In the examples below you will first be shown the fill without groove. You will then be given a four bar phrase using the 'A A A B' structure. Remember to repeat the phrase to practice switching from fill to groove.
When the fill is applied with groove you will quite often see a Minim Rest in the top voice of the notation. This is just to inform you that the riding part pauses whilst the fill is played and can mostly be ignored.
Example 1
The first fill is just four straight eighth notes on the snare covering beats 3 and 4.
Fill
Phrase
Example 2
In this fill you'll split the four notes between two different drums in two groups of two.
Fill
Phrase
Example 3
This is a similar pattern moved between two different drums.
Fill
Phrase
Example 4
This pattern uses the triangle pattern.
Fill
Phrase
Example 5
Finally, a group of three eighths followed by one eighth.
Fill
Phrase
TASK:
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all fills up to a tempo of at least 135bpm.
- Get all four bar phrases up to a tempo of at least 135bpm.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 full bar eighth note fills then apply them to a phrased example.
I recommend trying our Three Quarter Bar Eighth Note Fills, Very Short Fills or A B Exercises Using Eighth Note Fills next.
