{"id":24279,"date":"2020-07-31T17:10:30","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T00:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/?p=24279"},"modified":"2023-05-25T21:15:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T04:15:54","slug":"drum-fills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/drum-fills\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Play Drum Fills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is a drum fill?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Drum fills are rhythmic patterns that either elaborate on or break from the main groove of a song. They\u2019re typically used as a transition between song sections, and often come after two, four or eight measures. Fill lengths vary and depend on the musical context. They sometimes last just one or two beats, or as long as one or two measures – and sometimes even longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drum fills can be thought of as not just rhythmic, but melodic as well. A drummer can create a fill \u201ctheme\u201d in a song; for example, every fill consists of 8th notes and starts on the 3 in a measure. In this way, a fill can be the drummer\u2019s equivalent of a melodic hook – a \u201cmemorable musical idea\u201d that catches the listener\u2019s ear and comes up a few times throughout a song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are drum fills used for?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Fills create interest, excitement, and even tension\/release when transitioning between parts of a song, such as from a verse to a chorus. They\u2019re deviations from the main groove that introduce a new texture in order to \u201cfill the gap\u201d between melodic phrases and mark that something\u2019s happening musically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could think of hitting a crash cymbal as the simplest drum fill: it takes up the space of just one beat but is still a break from the primary rhythm, usually emphasizes a musical transition, and signifies the end of a group of two, four or eight measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave explains how to play a drum fill perfectly in this video (even if you aren’t playing rock music):<\/p>\n\n\n