Lesson 6: Your first fills

A fill is the moment the drummer steps out of the beat to announce that something is about to happen: the chorus, the verse, the end. Beginners fear fills because they sound like freedom, and freedom is frightening. So here is the secret: a good beginner fill is beat four with something in it, and then the beat comes back. That is all.

Watch first

Fill one: four on the snare

Two bars. Play the money beat for the first bar and three beats of the second, then on beat four stop the hat and play four sixteenth notes on the snare, right left right left. Then straight back into the beat. The hard part is not the fill; it is arriving on “one” of the next bar in time.

▶ Play90 BPM−5+5

Say “one e and a” for the fill and the beat will come back on time, because you counted into it.

Fill two: around the toms

Same four notes, but snare, snare, hi tom, floor tom. Your hands travel across the kit and land back on the hi-hat for “one”. Keep the stick heights the same on every drum, so the toms do not get quieter than the snare.

▶ Play90 BPM−5+5

Fill three: a whole bar, then the crash

Eventually a fill takes the whole bar: sixteenths round the kit, four on each drum. The beat returns with a crash cymbal on “one”, played together with the kick. That crash is the point of the fill; the fill is only the run-up. Here the fill is bar one and the beat comes back in bar two.

▶ Play90 BPM−5+5

The kick on every beat under the fill keeps the time while your hands are away. It is a good habit from the start.

Practise

Fill one, then two, then three, four bars of beat between each so you get used to the beat coming back. Do not play the fills faster than the beat; the whole point is that they are in time. Open the fill in the lab and set ½ speed if the return to “one” keeps landing late.