Creating a Believable Drum Fill

Drummers are programmed to believe that there are two ways to create a drum fill or solo (more on solo’s later). One way to create a fill is to play a difficult piece and make it look simple; another is to play a simple piece making it look difficult. Neither method is wrong; however a different approach will improve creativity!

An explanation:

A FILL is a musical opportunity for the drummer to contribute to the music.

Song structure:

Song is structured of musical phrases and in between those phrases are pauses (emptiness). Empty pauses typically fall between lyrics, the end of a guitar (or other instrument) piece, or at another pause in the song’s structure. Think of drumming as the punctuation for musical phrases. The drum fill does not go in the middle of a phrase, because like a conversation, interruption is disruption. Listen to the melodic conversation of the piece being played, and play into the conversation.

Here is how to have a good conversation – the four and eight bar phrase.

A lot of ROCK, JAZZ, BLUES, COUNTRY and other styles of music are constructed in four or eight bar phrases (measures of music). A good place to begin listening for phrases is to develop the ‘feel’ for four and eight bars. Since a drummer typically plays at the end of these phrases – it’s good to become familiar with the structure.

A fill often leads into a cymbal crash. Start with a crash to help develop timing and ending of the four bar phrase. This will signal to the band and audience that a change took place.

In the fourth measure of the simple 4 bar phrase and crash on ONE, insert the fill instead of the basic beat. To make it interesting,  pick a subdivision of the beat and practice the timing on the snare drum. In these examples, a 8^th and 16^th notes counted as one-and, two-and, three-e-and-ah, four-e-and-ah, are used.

Using the same structure, move the beat from the snare onto the toms-toms.

Or use the bass drum and the tom-toms.

By adding dynamics the drummer can introduce a new section of the musical composition. Increasing the tempo dynamically is a method often used to move into the chorus of a song.

Add more texture to the sound by using bass drum, flams, and dynamics.

Try different fill patterns:

Here is another fill example with 8^th note triplets.

It is also possible to use rests in your fill. Here is an example:

Write a few more, taking them to the drum kit. Practice to music, slowly at first then find music with a faster tempo.

Summary

1. A. Pick a subdivision
2. B. Practice on the snare
3. C. Move the beat around the toms
4. D. Develop the fill with texture