Drum Fills during Groove Breaks
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Drum Fills during Groove Breaks – YouTube Playlist
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Drum Fills are NOT the same as Drum Fill-ins:
Fills shouldn’t be confused with Fill-ins. Fill-ins occur during the Time-Keeping by adding extra quieter (ghost) notes between the regular Time-Keeping notes and the Groove, and thus act as “Embellishment” of both.
However, Fills occur after a “Stop” in the Time-Keeping and Groove that creates a “Break” when often nobody else in the band is playing, and thus acts a conversational “Dialogue” with the band. Fills are usually louder than Fill-ins!
Just as Grooves and Fill-ins can, the Fill can create “Rhythmic-Energy Contours” (see that section of Drums – Grooves). Fills can either “Build-up” energy-intensity to signal a louder upcoming Section of the music or they can help “Release” energy-intensity to a mellower Section of the music. In my charts I mark these with a “F” or “Fill” over a long “<” Crescendo sign or a long “>” Diminuendo sign, respectively. Sometimes I add “B” for “Buildup” to further clarify more volume and/or note-density!
Video: Drums – Fills & Fill-ins – 1 hand + 1 or 2 Bass Drums before, under, or after
Video: Around the Kit with 1/8-note Tigers
Video: Around the Kit with 1/16-note Porcupines or Trotting Horses
Video: Around the Kit with 1/16-note Alligators or Locomotions
Video: Stop Time on 3, Till with “+ 4e+, 2-bar Phrase: 1st bar Fill-in, 2nd bar Fill
Video: Slam-Foot and Flam-FF Fills
Steve Gadd Triplets for Fills:
Steve Gadd Triplets are R L F or L R F, but these can also be played F R L/F L R or even R F L/L F R. They can be played with 1/8 or 1/16-note Triplets. Instead of the cumbersome counting of 1/8-note Triplets as “1-trip-let, 2-trip-let, etc.,” I teach to count them as “1 e a 2 e a, etc.” or sing “1 da na 2 da na, etc.” or evenly simpler as “1 da da 2 da da, etc.” and for 1/16-note Triplets counting as “1ee+aa 2ee+aa, etc.” or singing as “1 da na and da na, 2 da na and da na, etc.” or even simpler as “1 da da and da da 2 da da and da da, etc.”
Video: 1/8-note Triplets using Motions in Jazz, and where to put the crash getting back to Time
Video: Sneaking up on the RF by playing R F Shuffles, then Fill-in with LH
Video: 1/8-note Triplet in the 4th Bar, all-hands in “4” to get to “1” in time
Video: Coming out of the Fill with Foot-Foot “a1” crashing on “1”
Video: RLFRLF “3 e a 4 e a” Fill or Fill-in in Jazz
Video: “3 e a 4 e a” as “R L F L R F,” crashing with the R on “1”
Video: “4 e a” as “R L F” or “L R F,” crashing on “1” with either hand
Video: “4 e a 1” as “R L F R” then “L R F L,” crashing on the “1”
Video: 1/16-note Triplets (Sextuplet) “RLFRLR” for “1ee+aa . . .”
Drum-Set Motion Studies in Fills:
I teach my Motion Studies using Linear Fills like R L R L F or R L R L F F or leading with the Feet as F R L R L or F F R L R L, respectively. These Motion Studies will really help you get around your drum set! Keep each stroke evenly spaced and let them flow in a continuous circular motion to take advantage of the free energy of momentum. If you move in a straight line you have to stop to move in another direction, but then you have to overcome the force of inertia – a body at rest tends to remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. You don’t want to be that “outside force,” because this is a waste of energy you could use instead for speed, volume, and endurance!
Video: 4-drums RLRLF Motions, ending with a Flam on Snare or Flat Flam (Snare + Crash)
Video: Even 4-drums Linear Fill RLRFF for FFRLRL Sextuplets
Video: Sextuplet RLRLFF Left-to-Right Motion
Video: How to use RLRLF / FRLRL or RLRLFF / FFRLRL as a Fill
Video: Use a whipping motion to restart the Fill to create kinetic energy and momentum
Video: FFRLRL Sextuplet “In-to-Out” Motion – be even and continuous in your motion
Video: Be even and continuous in your motions
Rudiments used in Fills:
Drum Rudiments are “building blocks” of various foot/hand/sticking patterns used to build Technique & Stick-Control given various rhythmic notations and countings to create a fundamental “vocabulary” for the drummer to “master” and then build on. They can be applied to everything in drumming!
Video: Drag Tap Fills – Drag on the Snare and ‘Tap’ on a Crash with a Bass-Drum
More Coming!
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