Drum fills

A fill usually takes the last beat of a phrase, four sixteenth notes from step 12 to step 15, and lands on a crash at the next beat 1.

What a fill is for

A fill is a short break from the repeating beat, usually at the end of a phrase. Songs are built in phrases of four or eight bars, and the fill tells the band and the listener that something new is about to start: a chorus, a verse, a solo. Fills range from a few strokes on the snare to several bars of toms. The beginner’s rule is simple: keep the groove for three beats, play the fill on beat 4, and land on beat 1 of the next bar with the kick and a crash cymbal. Landing on time matters more than anything you play in between.

Counting the last beat

Beat 4 on the pad is steps 12, 13, 14 and 15, counted "4 e & a". A one-beat fill puts a snare stroke on each of those four steps. To make room, drop the hi-hat on beat 4 so your hands are free. A two-beat fill starts at beat 3, step 8, and runs for eight sixteenths. On a real kit you would move the fill around the toms from high to low, for example two strokes on the snare, two on the rack tom, two on the floor tom and two on the snare again. The pad here has only kick, snare and hi-hat, so practise the rhythm on the snare row first.

Sticking: which hand plays which note

Drummers write which hand plays each stroke with R and L. The single stroke roll alternates, R L R L, and is the natural choice for a sixteenth-note fill. The double stroke roll plays two with each hand, R R L L. The paradiddle, R L R R L R L L, mixes both and lets the leading hand switch sides, which is handy when a fill moves across the toms. These patterns are called rudiments. The Percussive Arts Society published a list of 40 International Drum Rudiments in 1984, which includes the traditional 26 American rudiments, and drummers still practise them as daily warm-ups.

The paradiddle above is written as two groups because it takes two beats of sixteenths: R L R R on one beat and L R L L on the next. Say the word "pa-ra-did-dle" as you play it and the rhythm of the name matches the sticking.

Less is more

New drummers tend to fill too often and too long. A fill every four or eight bars is plenty, and the end of a section is the right place. A good test is to sing the melody while you play: if the fill drowns out the singer or makes you lose the bar, it is too much. Some of the most effective fills are just one snare hit on the "&" of 4, step 14, or a gap where the band stops for a beat.

Try it

The first pad has three beats of rock groove and a one-beat snare fill on steps 12 to 15. Press Play and count "1 e & a" out loud. The second pad has a two-beat fill starting on beat 3. Picture the crash on beat 1 each time the bar loops back.