5 Drum Fills for Beginners: How to Play Basic Drum Fills

A drum fill is a featured drum part that comes during transition points within a piece of music. Often, drum fills occur on the final bar of a section, such as the end of a verse going into a pre-chorus or when a pre-chorus transitions into a chorus.

In most drum fill scenarios, other players either cut out or they play fairly simple phrases, allowing the drum set to take center stage—although typically only for a single measure. Some drum fills might bleed into a second measure, but once you get beyond two measures, you're essentially playing a mini-solo.

As you sit behind your drum kit and start learning drum fills, begin by practicing with a metronome. Focus on precision and tempo, and only add flourishes once the basics are in place. Start with the below beginner drum fills and work your way up to flashier fills.

1. 1. One single note: Yes, you can play a drum fill with one single note: Just strike the downbeat of a measure and let the silence ring out. It's both easy and powerful.
2. 2. Eighth-note build: This fill consists of steady eighth notes for a full measure. The way you build this drum fill is by adding more drums—and thus more volume—over the course of the measure. Start with just your kick drum and then add more instruments, whether that's the snare drum, tom-toms, hi-hat, ride, or even crash.
3. 3. Sixteenth notes: Perhaps the most iconic drum fill is a full measure of sixteenth notes, moving from one tom-tom to another. Sixteenth-note fills became popular during the surf rock era, and they're still around today.
4. 4. Eighth-note triplets: If you're playing music with a steady eighth-note pulse, you can alter the feel by playing a drum fill based around eighth-note triplets. Led Zeppelin's John Bonham was so fond of this fill that it's sometimes called the "Bonham triplet."
5. 5. Flam fills: Remember, a flam is a drum rudiment where the drummer strikes a grace note just a split second before the primary stroke. Add some flams to an eighth-note fill to challenge yourself and add a little momentum to the music.

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