This week’s finish the fill starts with a very useful 16th note bass drum, snare drum and hi-hat pattern which takes us up to the & of 2. You then get to decide what happens from the ah of 2 onwards.

Where To Start?

Here’s our first 7 notes:

It’s very common in rock music to accent beats 1 and the “&” of 2. With this drum fill, the snare drum is providing the accent on those two beats. The bass drum is playing a funky syncopated pattern on the 16th notes that’s always going to sound awesome. Work on the interplay between your hi-hat and bass drum to make sure the notes are evenly spaced.

The first version of this drum fill I played is just a continuation of the pattern. This keeps the 8th note hi-hat nice and sm0oth and the funky bass drum happening. The snare drum plays one final note on beat 4 and then we put a bass drum on the “&” of 4 to indicate the party is over and it’s time to get back to grooving.

The key points for this drum fill are to keep the bass drum and hi-hat notes evenly spaced.

The second ending I went with for this fill features a few 32nd notes.

I start the end of the drum fill on beat 3 with an open hi-hat. This is something I like to do, I just let the open hi-hat ring throughout the drum fill and close it on the next bar. Practice this fill slowly at first, to get the movement smooth – 50bpm is a good start tempo. My sticking pattern for the ending – from beat 3 onwards is: R RLR L R L RLR

The 3rd ending continues with the 32nd note theme. I play a Right-Left-Kick pattern between the snare and the toms. I ghost the snare a bit so that the tom melody stands out more.

The limit on your speed here is how fast you can do the RLK pattern cleanly. You can also change the pattern into 16th note triplets if you find it easier. I wanted the slightly more staccato feel of the broken 32nd notes here, rather than the more rounded 16th note triplet feel.

For the 4th ending I kept things simple but added a 16th note triplet twist on the end.

Again this drum fill features an open hi-hat, but this time I close it within the fill to give a more controlled sound. I opted for a 16th note triplet flourish to end this fill, but you could just as easily end it with a single 8th note on the “&” of 4 or a pair of 16ths and it would still sound good.

What’s your ending?

There are thousands of ways to finish this fill. How are you going to end it? Practicing ideas like this should help you get more comfortable playing fills and flowing around the kit. Come up with as many ideas as you can.

I hope you’ve enjoyed finishing this fill. If you’re in Singapore and would like a free trial drum lesson, send us a message via the contact us page.