Drum fills Archives | Total Drummer

Polyrhythmic Fills

Polyrhythmic Fills Learn how to use polyrhythms in drum fills This Is The Polyrhythmic Fills Lesson Welcome to this polyrhythmic fills lesson. We will learn how to use polyrhythms in drum fills. Previously we looked at the basics of polyrhythms, polyrhythm snares in grooves, and polyrhythm bass drum in grooves.So now let's explore some options with polyrhythmic drum fills. Using polyrhythm in fills instantly makes them sound interesting and more advanced. It adds an extra layer of rhythmic sophistication that can feel like you're taking the music somewhere different. Usually we will only use this technique briefly before returning to…

Drags In Beats and Fills

Drags In Beats and Fills Learn how to use the drag rudiment in musical scenarios This Is The Drags In Beats and Fills Drum Lesson Welcome to the drags in beats and fills drum lesson. The drag is one of the core rudiments and it has a very military style sound if we play it on the snare drum repeatedly.But the drag is such a useable rudiment in modern drumming styles on the drumkit. It can enhance all manner of drum beats and fills in many genres.So this drum lesson breaks down the drag. We discuss what it is and…

Essential Blues Fills

Essential Blues Fills Learn how to play the core blues drum fills This Is The Essential Blues Fills Lesson Welcome to the essential blues fills drum lesson. Here we will learn how to play the core blues drum fills.We recently learnt some core blues drum beats which were largely based on the swung shuffle rhythm (although not all of them were). But if you've got some beats learnt you need drum fills to go with them. And that's what we're exploring in this lesson.These drum fills are also swung so we break down how to move around the kit in…

8th Note Triplet Fills

8th Note Triplet Fills. Learn how to play 8th note triplet drum fills This Is The 8th Note Triplet Fills Lesson Welcome to this 8th note triplet fills drum lesson. Here we will develop your triplet drum fills. Drummers often start playing straight eighth and sixteenth notes in fills. Triplets can seem a bit mysterious.But they are an essential subdivision to master and once you get comfortable with them you can play freely in swung music as well as using triplets in straight music to create an interesting effect.This lesson will help you develop your confidence and ability with triplet…

16th Note Subdivision Drum Fills

16th Note Subdivision Drum Fills Learn how to play difficult sounding drum fills that are easy to learn This Is The 16th Note Subdivision Drum Fills Welcome to this drum lesson where we will learn how to play 16th note subdivision drum fills.16th notes are one of the most used subdivisions in fills but a lot of drummers play very predictable phrasing within the 16th note framework. But there are so many options to get creative and play amazing sounding drum fills that are actually really easy to play.This drum lesson focuses on how we can develop those more interesting…

5 Simple Ways To Make Beginner Fills Sound Awesome

5 Simple Ways To Make Beginner Fills Sound Awesome Learn how to make beginner drum fills sound great This Is 5 Simple Ways To Make Beginner Fills Sound Awesome Drum Lesson Welcome into this drum lesson where we break down 5 Simple Ways To Make Beginner Fills Sound Awesome. These ideas will elevate your drum fills to a much higher level but they are quite simple when we break them down.Below is the full video lesson and you can grab the notation for each fill below the video.We will start with the most basic beginner drum fill that you can…

Five Great Rock Fills

Five Great Rock Fills Learn how to play five epic drum fills from famous rock songs This Lesson Shows You Five Great Rock Drum Fills Welcome to the five great rock fills drum lesson. Us drummers are always on the search for new drum fill inspiration and often the best starting point is to study our favourite songs.And that's exactly what we do in this drum lesson. We will break down some of the best rock drum fills from:MuseNirvanaJimmy HendrixPhil CollinsSoundgardenIn doing so we will study the approach to fills from Dave Grohl, Dominic Howard, Mitch Mitchell, Matt Cameron and…

Mixed Subdivisions Drum Lesson

Mixed Subdivisions Drum Lesson Learn how to play fills and grooves whilst changing gears. This Is The Mixed Subdivisions Drum Lesson Welcome to the mixed subdivisions drum lesson. Here we will learn how to play between different note values within a bar.This is sometimes described as switching gears and having command of these rhythmic shenanigans allows you to play very interesting drum beats and fills.Just imagine that every beat and fill you play is all sixteenth notes. It would get very predictable and boring. But after this lesson you will be able to flow between:Quarter notesEighth notesEighth note tripletsSixteenth notesQuintupletsSextupletsThese…

Cool Reggae Drum Lick

Cool Reggae Drum Lick Learn how to play an awesome reggae phrase that sounds exciting This Is The Cool Reggae Drum Lick Welcome to this drum lesson where we will learn a very cool reggae drum lick. You are most probably aware that reggae is a genre that hails from Jamaica and for the most part it is not about showing off or having big egos on the drums.It is much more focussed on groove. And it's a tricky thing to get that laid back groove sounding just right. But it's really fun trying.So in this lesson we will touch…

Sextuplet Fills with Bass Drums

Sextuplet Fills with Bass Drums Learn how to play awesome sounding drum fills This Is The Sextuplet Fills with Bass Drums Drum Lesson Welcome to the sextuplet fills with bass drums lesson. Here we will learn how to play some exciting drum fills that are actually easy to learn.We will take the humble sextuplet (also known as a 16th note triplet) and breakdown ways that we can build fill phrases within them. But we will also go a step further and substitute some of the notes with bass drums. This creates a very interesting effect that makes your fills sound…