This week’s Finish The Fill drum fill was inspired by a drum fill in the song “Summer Of ’69” by Bryan Adams. Check it out!

Where To Start?

Here’s the first two beats of all these fills:

A simple start to this fill – just four notes spread over two beats. Note the dotted eighth note on beat 1 which means our second note is on the “ah” of 1. Our next two notes are 8th notes, which means our counting for the start of this fill is “1 ah 2 &”.

What Happens Next?

What happens next on Finish The Fill is always up to you, but here are the 5 endings that I added to this fill starter.

Ending #1 echoes the start of the fill by repeating the last 3 notes and using the same spacing between the notes. I then added two more 16th notes on the floor tom to give it an ending.

The counting for this first ending is :

1 ah 2 & (3) e & 4 & ah

I put the 3 in parentheses as we’re not playing anything on that beat. You may chose to omit it from your counting. Count the rhythm with a metronome first to make sure you have it right.

Ending #2 opts to put more space into the drum fill by just playing the toms on the “&” of 3 and the “&” of 4. A simple ending, but one of my favourites.

Ending #3 finally lets us play on beat 3. I like to put open hi-hats into my fills, this ending features an open hi-hat on to beat 3 and then a simple ending on beat 4.

Ending #4 uses a classic fill ending to give the drum fill a funky ending. Playing 2 out of every 3 sixteenth notes always sounds good. When we get to beat 3 our counting is : 3 e ah 4 & ah. We’re not playing on the “&” of 3 or the “e” of 4.

Ending #5 is the drum fill that inspired this finish the fill from “Summer of ’69” by Bryan Adams. It has the same rhythm as Ending #3 :

1 ah 2 & 3 & 4 e &

but a different orchestration.

You can hear this fill at 2:52 in this drum cover of Summer of ’69:

How will you Finish The Fill?

Have fun finishing the fill in your own unique ways. As always, come up with as many ideas as you can.

I hope you’ve enjoyed Finish The Fill #7. If you’re in Singapore and you’d like a free trial drum lesson, send us a message via the contact us page.