2) Developing better drum fills

Dear Rob,

Firstly I'd like to congratulate you on your web site,

I am a drummer in a 4 piece Indie / Rock band based in Edinburgh. I particularly liked your article on the 'secret to drum success' which I found very inspirational & motivational.

I have been playing for about 5 months after a 9 year break and was wondering if you could give me any advice on how to improve my fills & generally how to liven up my beats more.

Most of my fills are short, sharp & punchy (about 1/2 a bar) which was great at first but now I find this slightly boring,

I would be grateful if you could give me any advice / tips or recommend any books which could help me to improve my fills & overall sound which would really make the drums stand out in the band.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks in advance, Richie.

My reply:

Richie,

Thank your for your very kind email.

The site is still very much work in progress so I'm glad you found it had some value in its wip state.

Also, thanks for your comments about my article, "Secrets to drum success".

I created that article from my own experiences and stuff I have read from Steve White, Peter Erskine and other great drummers.

Before some of my advice on fills. How did you find my site ? I am not actively marketing it at all.

Anyhow Re fills, here is some of my thoughts and advice, as with all advice take out the bits that "fit" for you:

1) Just play some time yourself and then just make stuff up, relax, don't think, just play, but importantly record yourself .

I am lucky as I have a Roland TDK6 kit and can play and record myself direct into Cubase on my computer.

2) Listen to your fav drummers and copy them. I do this with Chad Smith all the time

3) I have/am studying Guildhall School of Music Drums exams which require learning rudiments. All the rudiments can be adapted to become a fill e.g Check out Andy Bolds articles in Drummer mag. In this months (I think) He explains how to take a double flamacue and turn it into a groove but also a one bar fill.

He has done this with lots of rudiments eg single, double and triple Parradiddles. It also make them much more fun to learn!!!

4) Double your 1/2 bar to full bar fills, change accents, sub in a bass or hi hat instead of a right or left hand. e.g if you play a triplet fill RLRLRR go R L Right Foot L R Right Foot instead to give a different feel PS Triplets with a foot is very John Bonham, I am working on this myself at the moment

5) Use words to give you a fill phrase ie "Bucket of fish" translates into R L R Foot, but play it as R L R L the RLR becomes a triplet and the last L an 16th note

6) Buy the regular drum mags for information. They have lots of transcriptions of fills etc from different drummenrs. I now have over 5 year worth and I am starting to go back and re read articles and now I have moved on as a drummer I see things from a different level which gives me a differenct insight to stuff

7) Check out my latest article about keeping time in fills and listening to yourself, not exactly what you asked I know :-) Click Here

8) Lastly remember to keep it musicial at all times becuase a lot of great drummers always go on about less is more and respect the space eg Steve White, Billy Ward, Greg Bissonnette. Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones) drummer is renowned for playing flowing fills and just making small changes to his groove to make a fill eg just adding a hi hat open and close on beat 4.

Look at this link from modern drummer mag for Billy Ward's views here http://www.moderndrummer.com/playing.asp

Hope this helps some Regards Rob Ps Thanks for asking the question I now have another article for my website!!! :-)