Drum Fills: The Basics and Beyond

This book was created to help drummers improve their abilities to play great drum fills. The material presented was originally developed over the course of several years, as a result of the needs and requests of many of my students. As drummers practice playing fills, it becomes apparent that there are a variety of issues that need to be addressed. To play fluent and creative fills, a drummer needs a strong foundation of basic fill concepts, the technique to execute the fill, and musical ideas for the content of the fill. Without these key elements, playing fills can be a source of difficulty and frustration. To further illustrate this idea, in some cases a drummer may practice a particular lick or sticking pattern to a high degree of physical execution, but does not have a clear understanding of how to apply it well within a musical phrase. The opposite is also sometimes true, a drummer may understand a simple rhythmic idea and play it very well as a fill, but doesn't quite know how to employ more interesting techniques or sounds into the phrase and get something else out of it.