Drum Fills and Rhythmic Phrasing

I’ve found that being able to phrase fills around the kit while the band executes tight rhythmic patterns can bring an endless amount of fun and expressive personalized improvisational ideas to a song or composition without getting in the bay of other instruments or the music its-self. That being said, I’ve found it to be incredibly important to first; understand the role of the phrase in a broader content to the music as a whole, second; deliberate personally if filling the phrase will add to the musical value of the piece as a whole (which comes with experience in the genre being played as well as live practice with a band to give meaningful feedback) and thirdly; do I have the chops to execute this without upsetting the groove or the tempo?

With that being said, going off on a whim and creating immediate improvisational changes to arranged music can be daunting at first as there can be a multitude of layers to consider, such as;

Texture - What drum to hit and where

Rhythmic hits - What to accent and what not to accent with the band

Subdivision - What subdivision best 'fills in the gaps' between the accents

Melody - Do you follow, counter the contour of the melody in the rhythm or not follow it at all?

Dynamics - How do the different parts of the drum kit express accents within the phrase?

Structure - Where are these rhythmic hits going in the song? Are they driving into a double time chorus or lightly setting up a soft bridge?

And most importantly

Is filling in the space actually needed! (as space and silence can be one of the most useful tools a drummer can offer at times)

Creating a method to practice these concepts can also be a mammoth task too, some books to recommend that can help to shed the concepts are (everything should be practiced with a metronome at a comfortable tempo too).

Syncopation for the modern drummer – Ted Reed

Using the book as a diagnostic tool to find out what subdivisions need work can be a great starter to knowing on where to put your time in.

New Breed – Gary Chester (Exercises AI to BII)

These rhythm reading exercises can be used to create phrasing exercises by;

1. Playing the rhythm as written (on the snare)

2. Moving through subdivisions and playing the rhythm as accents (on the snare) from 8th notes to 32nd notes

3. Choosing a subdivision to play on the snare and playing the accents on the toms

4. Subdivision on the snare and accents on the cymbals (with a kick drum)

5. Moving between accents on the cymbals and accents on the toms

6. Placing a kick drum on the subdivision before or after the accent (I call this a ‘pre-kick’ or post-kick’)

7. Choosing either your left or right hand to play all accents (with use of diddles/ Doubles to change dominant hand)

8. Conjunction of these exercises, some examples can be;

   Both hands accent –use of exercise with only 8th notes - Subdivision of 8th notes to fill in – accents on cymbals with kick drum

   Right hand only plays accents – Use of exercise with that include accents on the ‘e’ and ‘a’ (exercise AII) – Subdivision of 16th note triplets to ‘fill in  – Accent on cymbals for a bar (with kick drum) then accents on floor tom only for a bar (with a pre-kick)

With New breed it can be helpful to ‘chunk’ this practice routine (as these steps can definitely be overwhelming when first attempting them). Breaking it up and choosing individual subdivisions to work on, rhythmic patterns that cause issue and/or breaking the bars down into 1, 2, 3 or 4 beat phrases.

Well, that’s a lot of work now! How does this actually turn into musical freedom and a flow of seemingly instant ideas?

This practice concept can absolutely be approached in a musical context by ‘filling in the gaps’ or creating improvised grooves around; improvised rhythms created from clapping, improvising fill around the melody of a song/ composition that you know well or finding a backing track that has easy (or challenging) to navigate rhythmic patterns.

The following are backing tracks created as a tool to help foster your creativity with navigating rhythmic phrases in both straight and swung 16ths/ Semi-quavers.

Below are examples with drums

Remember, when practicing any new technique concept it can be incredibly helpful to transition it as soon as possible to music (even within the same practice session), without applying these techniques or practice routines to real world expressions of various genres of music, the delivery can become mechanical, too methodical, create a potential lack flow and hinder your expression within genre specific idioms which can eliminate the spontaneity of the improvisation!