Fills

A fill is a short break at the end of a phrase that leads back into the beat. It tells the listener "something new is coming". The fill itself is the fun part; landing back on the "1" is the important part.

Your first tom fill

This bar plays the beat for three beats, then runs down the toms from high to low on beat 4 and lands on a crash with the kick. Both hands leave the home row, so it trains you to move and come back in time.

Focus on: landing the crash and kick together on the "1" after the fill.

Common mistake: rushing the fill. The toms are 16th notes, the same speed as the hats in chapter 8.

How to build a fill

Keep it short at first. A fill on beat 4 alone is plenty. Longer fills come later.
Go high to low. Moving from the high tom down to the low one sounds natural because the pitch falls.
Stop the hats. Your hat hand is busy with the toms, so the hats drop out during the fill.
Land on the one. A crash with the kick on the next downbeat closes the fill.

Write your own fill

The beat below has empty toms and snare on beat 4. Tap cells in the last four steps to write your own fill, then play it yourself. Snare hits mixed with the toms sound great too.