Finish The Fill #12

This week’s drum fills all start of with a flam and some 16th note interplay between the hands and the bass drum… but how will they end? Let’s find out!

Finish The Fill #12

Where To Start?

Let’s start with a flam and take it from there. A flam is always an impactful way to start a drum fill, it grabs the listeners attention and lets them know this is an important moment. Then we’re going to follow it with alternating bass drum and double stops between the snare and floor tom. It looks like this:

Getting Started

Practice this until you can play nice smooth 16th notes between the hands and the feet.

What Happens Next?

For my first ending, I went with a classic rock drum fill ending. Keeping with the theme of double stops and bass drums, I played the classic Hands Kick Kick Hands Kick Kick Hands Kick drum fill. Together with the start of this drum fill it creates a very powerful moment.

Ending # 1

For my second ending, I dropped in a “what was that?” moment with a little 32nd note flash on beat 3. I play beat 3 as RLRKL. The right hand moves between snare and floor tom, the left hand stays on the snare.

Ending #2

You might want to practice this 32nd note element slowly at first. Work with a 16th note metronome at 50bpm and make sure the first snare, floor tom and final snare all line up with 16th note click. I don’t stray from 16th note counting for 32nd note elements, because you can’t really count 32nd notes fast enough at any practical speed. I prefer to count the 16ths and feel the 32nds notes in between. If you do it slow enough to start with, you’ll get it right.

Ending #3 for this drum fill has me playing a simple 16th note pattern between snare, floor tom and hi-hat. It gives a lighter ending to the drum fill and has a nice melody to it. Be careful with the open hi-hat on the “ah” of 3, make sure it syncs with the bass drum.

Ending #3

The fouth ending ups the excitement a bit with some 16th note triplets played in the classic RLK configuration,. I also squeeze in a flam at the end to provide a powerful ending.

Ending #4

This ending keeps the colour pallette of the drum fill the same but injects a little bit of speed. You may need to practice transitioning from 16th notes to 16th note triplets, especially when there is so much hand and foot co-ordintation involved.

My final ending, is very similar to the first one, but provides a nice alternative to it. It’s another powerful drum fill that will create a moment in a song. Use with care!

Ending #5?

How Will You Finish The Fill?

You have seen five of my ending for this drum fill, so how will you finish the fill? Spend time exploring your drum kit with this drum fill, how many useful endings can you create?

I hope you’ve enjoyed Finish The Fill #12. If you’re in Singapore and would like a free trial drum lesson, send us a message via the contact us page.

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