How to Play a Quarter-Measure Drum Fill Using the Snare and Toms

Fills are short transitions or breaks in a song. Drum fills are used to hold the listener's attention during these breaks. Fills are fun to play and are often performed with many variations. A quarter-measure drum fill is one-fourth of a measure.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Look at the music and see what time the music is written in. This tells you how many beats you have to work with. For example, if the music is written in 4/4 time you have 1 beat to complete the drum fill.

2. Play 2 16th notes or 16th note triplets on the snare drum. Four 16th notes are equal to 1 quarter note. Since this is a quarter-measure fill, we have 1 quarter note to work with.

3. Move to the toms. Play 2 16th notes or 16th note triplets. Normally these are played on 1 tom drum.

4. Speed up the fill with 32nd notes. The 32nd notes are half the size of 16th notes. Choose to speed the drum fill up with 4 32nd notes on the snare and 4 on the toms.

5. Practice variations. Variations are adding, taking away or changing different elements of the song. For example, play 2 16th notes and 4 32nd notes or switch to another tom. Variations allow drummers to create their own style of drumming.

Tips & Warnings

• Substitute a crash cymbal for the last beat in any fill. The cymbal adds emphasis on the fill.