What I’m about to tell you is highly classified: The cheat code for awesome drum fills is… uggh… I’ve been shot…

This week’s drum fill revisits a sticking pattern that we’ve used on more than one occasion: RLL. There are tons of uses for this simple sticking pattern. We most recently used it on fill of the week #56, check that one out for another example.

Learn The Fill

On fill of the week #56 we started the RLL sticking from beat one. With this week’s drum fill we’re displacing it so the RLL starts on the “&” of 1. This gives it a different sound to fill of the week #56.

Let’s start out by looking at the sticking pattern we’ll be using for this drum fill.

As you can see we start with R L before getting in to the R L L sticking which we play 4 times before finishing with another R L. Practice this sticking until it is easy for you.

Now lets add in some accents.

We’re accenting all the Right hand notes except for the second one which is on the snare. Now practice the sticking pattern with these accents added.

Our final task is to orchestrate the accents around the kit. I decided to start my drum fill on the 2nd tom because not many drum fills start there but maybe they should. Here’s the pattern that I played:

Take It Further

Once you have mastered this fill, the only logical thing to do is try out some other orchestrations of the same fill. Here’s four for you to try.

The first drum fill has us playing the accents up and then down the toms from floor tom to the high tom and then back again.

The second drum fill reverses the first drum fill and has us playing the accents down and then up the toms, from high tom to floor tom and then back again.

The third tom accents the snare on the first and last accents and plays down the toms in the middle. Try using a rim shot on the snare accents to get an extra pop.

The final fill sees us putting the accents on a crash cymbal together with the bass drum. Now create some of your own… here’s a tip… the left hand doesn’t have to stay on the snare drum.

I hope you enjoyed fill of the week #59. If you’re in Singapore and you’d like a free trial lesson, send us a message on the Contact Us page.