Here’s fill of the week #33, don’t trip-let over it!

Our friend the five note grouping makes it’s return for fill of the week #33. Last time we saw the five note grouping it was on fill of the week #28 where we used it in 16th note triplet form. This time we’re using it in 8th note triplet form and going over the bar line with it. Let’s get to it.

Learn The Fill

Our five note grouping this time is Right, Left, Right, Left Kick. We’re going to play three times, move it around the kit and go over the bar line with it. Our first step is to get comfortable with the basic rhythm. Here it is played between the snare and bass drum.

Take this slow and count out loud as you do it. Make a mental note of where each five note grouping starts in the bar, then, as you play it, check that your right hand is hitting the snare drum on those beats – Beat 1, the “Let” of 2 and, the “Puh” of 4.

Once you have the basic pattern down you can orchestrate it around the kit anyway you like. I chose to progressively move around the toms.

Because the fill finishes on the “let” of 1, we can end the fill with a snare/crash combination on beat 2 and drop back into our groove.

Take It Further

You may not always desire to use this fill as an over the bar line fill. So we can easily turn it into a 1 bar fill. Let’s just move the last two notes of the first bar to the floor tom.

We can also extend this fill into a two bar fill by adding in two more groups of five.

To extend this fill I’ve repeated the first group and the last group of five. The last group conveniently ends on beat one of the 3rd bar, so naturally, I put a crash on it.

Practicing this two bar fill will also help you to play the 16th note triplet fill from fill of the week #28.

I hope you’ve enjoyed fill of the week #33. If you’d like drum lessons and you’re in Singapore, send us a message on the contact us page.