drum fills – Page 6 – Learn Drums For Free

10 Short Drum Fills Lasting 2 Beats Each

Slowly play the Snare twice then Tom 1 twice.
Snare, High Tom, Floor Tom.
To play this fill, you have to do a flam on the snare drum and then a flam on tom 1 for 1 beat each.
To play this drum fill, play a flam on Tom 1 then a flam on the floor tom, lasting for 1 beat each.
Play the floor tom with your right hand, the snare with your left and, and hit them both at the same time 4 times to create this short drum fill.
Tom 1 and Floor tom together twice, then Tom 2 and floor tom together twice.
Floor tom + snare together, then bass drum, then floor tom + snare together again.
To play this drum fill, play the Tom 1 and floor tom together, then the bass drum, and then a flam on the snare drum.
Play a flam on the snare, then a bass drum, and then tom 2 and the floor tom together.
Flam on the snare, bass drum on it’s own, then flam on the snare.

10 Maths Drum Fills – Number Combinations adding up to 16

Each line is 1 drum fill, consisting of 16 x 16th notes. What we are doing with this sheet is diving that total number of 16 into various number combinations for different drums. Whilst all music could be related to maths, this exercise is a blatant use of numbers to make up the drum fills. You may hear of styles like ‘Math Rock’, where sometimes all the instruments explore this technique of coming up with and exploring rhythms, time signatures and phrases from a mathmatical stance, in a deliberate and focused way.

For example, an easy drum fill around the kit would be 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16. That’s the drum fill that most drummers are taught first. 4 snares, 4 high toms, 4 medium toms and 4 floor toms.

Play every exercise with a continuous Right Left Right Left sticking (this is the opposite if you are left handed).

Creative Exercises for Paradiddile-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes

Here are some creative examples of how you can expand on the ‘Paradiddile-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes’ exercise 1 from Grade 7 technical exercises.

There are accents (>) underneath each line of rhythms to watch out for. There are also ghost notes (brackets around the notes), which means to play quiet taps. The diamond shape on the ride cymbal line is the Ride Bell. Play this with the shoulder of the stick to the left hand side of the bell (opposite for left handers).

9 Drum Fills Lasting 1 Bar Each – Grade 1

Here are some practice drum fills. Repeat each one until the drum fill flows nicely. You could also try playing 1, 3, 7 or 15 bars worth of drum beats leading up to playing each drum fill. This would replicate playing them in a song.

7 Short Drum Fills

These drum beats and drum fills exercises are for drummers that have learned how to play basic beats and fills already. A strong foundation in Snare Drum Sheet Music would be extremely useful here due to the style of the drum fills being based on snare drum rhythms.

After the first bar of drum beat, there are two ‘repeat the previous bar’ markings. Here the drummer may either copy the first bar, or develop the beat slightly. Each exercise should be repeated at least once before stopping and trying the next one.

Drum Solo Exercises Using Six Stroke Roll With RLLRRL Sticking

This is an exercise that can be used in your practice schedule, and can be used as drum fills in your playing. This 6 Stroke Roll rudiment (played on the snare drum) is part of the technical exercises in Rockschool Grade 7 (Alternative paradiddle-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes), and is a good excercise for becoming more comfortable with playing it. This six stroke roll exercise can also be used / modified for drum soloing.

6/8 time signature grooves and fills

A 6/8 time signature is the same as a fraction. In music it means that there are 6 eigth notes in each bar. Normally in a bar of 4/4, we have 8 eigth notes in the bar. Just like in fractions, 4/4 = 8/8).

In this 6/8 time signature, the emphasis is on beat 1 and 4.

Improvisation Test examples and ideas for Rockschool Grade 2 Drums exam

Unofficial rockschool preperation ideas for improvisation part of the Grade 2 drum exam.

Students should improvise (make up your own on the spot), but if you are stuck knowing what to do for bars 2-4 on the improvisation practice before the exam, then these should help you. Drum teachers are welcome to print these excercises out and teach them to your pupils in drum lessons.

You will get given 1 bar of a drum beat, then 2 blank bars to improvise drum beats in and then 1 blank bar for a drum fill to be played in.

The last drum fill should be played as R L L R L L R L L R, with accents on the Right hands and ghost notes (very quiet taps) on the left hands. Reverse sticking for left handed players.

5 Easy drum fills lasting 1 bar

Here is a grade 1 level drum beats and fills exercise sheet. All Fills use the Snare and Floor Tom together at the same time. There are crescendos on the last two fills (volume build up). You will need a basic level of reading knowledge to try this without a teacher.

Simple 6 2 6 2 Drum Fill with 16th notes

You play 3 bars of groove then this drum fill using a 6 2 6 2 pattern that equals 16. By playing 16 x 16th notes, you get a fill that lasts one bar. More fills can be created by changing the numbers around. you could try 2 6 6 2 for example, or 4 4 6 2 – anything that adds up to 16.