It’s time for some fast tom fun.

Watch drum fill of the week #79 on Instagram

This week’s drum fill can be considered a back beat fill. That is, it keeps the snare drum on beats 2 & 4 happening during the drum fill. This is a very musical way of playing drum fills and is especially appropriate for dance music where you need to keep the back beat constant to keep people dancing.

Learn The Fill

This drum fill is very simple rhythmically speaking. It’s just all the 16th notes played with single stroke roll sticking. Here’s the drum fill:

This is one my “go to” drum fills when I need to keep the back beat going. It’s fairly easy to execute quickly and it sounds good. Notice how the left hand plays the first tom on the “e” of 2 and the “a” of 3 to facilitate the right hand getting between tom 2 the snare drum easily.

When working on your own back beat fills this is something to bear in mind – how easily can you access the snare drum on beats 2 and 4. You may need to use sticking patterns or add in some bass drum to make it possible.

I played the drum fill in the video at 140bpm; you may want to start slower and then bring it up to speed.

Take It Further

Here’s 3 more drum fills that keep the snare drum happening on beats 2 & 4.

The first drum fill adds a bit of rhythmic variation to our fills by missing out the occasional 16th note.

The second drum fill adds even more space with the use of eighth notes.

The final drum fill uses paradiddles to create the fill – except on beat 4. Now create some fills of your own!

I hope you’ve enjoyed drum fill of the week #79. If you’re in Singapore and you’d like a free trial lesson, send us a message via the contact us page.