Rock Drum Fills #2

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Introduction to Half Bar Drum Fills

We are back with the second video in the rock drum fills course and in this course, we're gonna look at a few different fills.

Like I said in the first course are gonna teach you some associated techniques now in the first fill. You'll notice it's very different because it's actually one bar beat, then half bar of beat and then half bar of fill and most drummers think that a fill as a half. At least I should say most drummers.

I thought when I first started a fill is always 1 bar and that is wrong. A fill can be a bar and a half, it can be one beat, it could be half a beat, it could be a quarter of a beat like a sixteenth.

It can be many different things and so here is where we're gonna talk about some half bar fills.

Half Bar Drum Fill #6:

So for the first fill its as 16th notes, okay. So sixteenth notes are four hits for every one count. So we're gonna start with four hits on the snare drum on count three, then two hits in the high tom as sixteenth notes and two hits on the floor top.

So it's gonna go that that doo-doo-doo-doo, that you'll remember the first fill from the first video within this course.

This is the same fill crammed into a shorter period of time so it's a different note value as sixteenth notes. But you'll find that it's actually gonna be quite easy to get it.

But it's gonna feel weird playing only a half bar.

So what I recommend you do is just listen to how I play it slow and fast and then you can go ahead and pause the video.

You can watch the rest of the lesson and watch all the fields and then take your kit and really just count it out nice and slow and really get comfortable with how that half bar feels and how it feels to do a half bar fill. So here we go at again 60 and 100 beats per minute.

Half Bar Drum Fill #7:

Number two is another half bar fill just broken up a little differently. So we're gonna start in the high top with two hits and then we're gonna go to four hits on the snare and what's different about this is normally only do four hits, it's always kind of automatic.

It was square like it's always per count. So one E and two E and A three E and a four E and A.

We're starting these four hits in the middle of count three so the snare hit starts on the end of three. So it goes three E and four E and then to the floor tom for the last two hits. It's going to feel a little bit funky at first but I think you're going to like it.

Here we go!

Half Bar Drum Fill #8:

Third 1/2 bar fill is where we're gonna start incorporating some bass drum, and there's two kind of techniques that are associated here. First, it's a somewhat linear pattern and we talked a little bit about that in the first lesson within this course and the linear patterns in the first lesson.

We're all eighth notes. So here is something that we're dealing with which is sixteenth notes and it's also a little bit broken. So we're using eighth notes and sixteenth notes combined together.

Then the other thing is that there's a quick double kick drum hit on the end of three and the start of three and so you're gonna have to really go slowly.

I always like to just kind of take that one chunk and let's see how it or listen to it just by tapping on my legs.

So that one chunk would sound like this, three E and Three E and A three E and.

Let's do the four as well. So three E and A four and A three E and four and one E and A three E And four and one.

Okay. Let's try that two separate tempos

Half Bar Drum Fill #9:

So the fourth fill is definitely the most challenging one to date

I think it's gonna be the hardest view and probably take the most time. If not, that's great. It's basically a linear fill with a quick group of sixteen. No doubles and again, if you want to start just on your legs, that's totally fine.

So you can just play the sixteenth notes one E and two E and three and four E and A. All right, so that's the rhythm one E and two E and three and four B and A.

So once you get the rhythm you can now work on the orchestration.

Okay, i'm playing very quiet so I can talk and play at the same time but I'll do it really slow at sixty and just listen to how the orchestration sounds. Listen to how they feel, sound and try and you know when you listen to a song you can pick out the melody you can eventually sing the song. So with drumming you can do that as well.

So really listen to the way the toms sound the snare sounds and try and sing along with me and then when you take it to your kit.

You might find that it's actually easier to learn because your brain is already starting to memorize the melody on the drums.

Alright, here we go.

Half Bar Drum Fill #10:

The fifth one is probably to me the most challenging feels at this point and that's for a couple reasons.

Go ahead and look at the end of two so two E and three.

You're gonna see that there is a floor tom on count three and three floor tom hits going in to count three.

So when we're playing sixteenth notes, they're in groups of four. Every time we throw like a group of three in there in anyway, even if it kind of makes sense it generally throws drummers off.

And so I wanted to give you something like this so you can get comfortable with how it feels and how it sounds.

The next thing I want you to notice is there is a one bass drum on the e of four now. This is a linear pattern again. But we've been playing two hits on the bass drum with all of our linear patterns.

Which again is very square. Like I say it's very much easier to play two hits on the bass drum because everything still lines up.

If all of a sudden we throw in one bass drum hit it changes everything. Changes the sticking around you sometimes have to crash with your left hand in this case.

You don't have to if you don't want to but yeah, it just changes things around.

So yes, just worry about the rhythm first. Okay, so one E and two E and three E and four E and.

Now let's figure out the orchestration.

There we go!


And there you have the second video in the rock drum fills course there just like on the first video.

I want you to not move on to the next one right now. Don't go ahead say you've completed it or anything like that.

I'll stop the video close the website and and go and get the sheet music and actually follow on and learn the fills.

So play them at the fast tempo for two minutes straight before moving on if on the sixteenth note feels like the last to number four and five you're finding hitting at 100 beats per minute is too challenging don't spend months on it. Go do it at the slow tempo and then consider moving on if you want to.

Those who that really want a challenge I would say you do it at 100 beats per minute for two minutes straight.

I'll see you in the next video

Go to Drum Fill Lesson Video #3 »
