Drum Fills

Here's the video for the groove we were playing in class. Start slowly, speed it up, then give it a go with a groove and along to a backing track.

Here are the grooves we used to play along with "Before I Forget" by Slipknot. The grooves in the song are actually played with 1/4 notes rather than 8th notes, but makes sure you're comfortable playing both as you may find these grooves elsewhere with different hi-hat patterns.The fills are more of an exercise to get yourself more comfortable with playing both hands and feet, with different hand and foot variations. Before playing all four bars, make sure you're relatively comfortable with playing each variation on its own. For instance, try playing only RLBB and BBRL fills on their own before putting them together with the RLRL link.If you're happy with everything here, give the grooves and fills a go together either at your own speed, with a backing track, or both!

Here are some fills we looked at last lesson, along with some of the main grooves found in Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive".Try and implement some of the ideas we had to make our grooves and fills sound bigger and louder, such as rim shots, open hi-hats and more crashes. If you feel confident give it a go with the song, but pay attention to whats going on with the music - loud crashes and big fills may not go down well in quiet parts...Have a listen to the song to get an even better idea of the structure, if you know the song playing along will be much easier!

Rockers grooves are played with the bass drum on the 1st and 3rd beats. Above are some examples with variations on the snare and hi-hat.The variations seen in these grooves, as well as those in the steppers and one step grooves, can be mixed and matched - The hi-hat and snare variations here can be used in one step and steppers grooves as well!Try playing all of these grooves both straight and shuffled, and see if you can come up with some of your own.

The Steppers groove in Reggae is played with the bass drum on each beat. The examples above all have variations on the hi-hat.See if you can come up with some of your own hi-hat variations, and if you're happy give them a go with some tunes!

The one step in Reggae is played with the bass drum on the third beat. Above are some examples of one step grooves with variations on the snare drum. A lot of Reggae is played in a shuffled style, so try playing each groove as a shuffle as well as a straight 1/4 note groove.Also try to remember that Reggae is a very chilled, laid back style of music, so some of the later grooves would be more likely used as fills instead of the main groove.If you're fairly confident with these grooves give them a go along with some Reggae tunes.Have fun!