5/4 Jazz Drum Fills
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Learn How To Play 5/4 Jazz Drum Fills On Your Drum Set!
Now it's time to start playing some jazz fills in 5/4 time. Up until this point we've worked on comping and developed the feel for 5/4 time. That's great, but it's time to step that up a notch and start playing fills. Jazz fills in 5/4 can be challenging because you are now adding an additional note to 4/4 timing. When I started practicing I found that if I started a single stroke roll with my right hand, I ended on my left hand. That can get awkward because it puts your hand away from the ride cymbal. If you look at the sheet provided, you'll notice that I do a lot of right left left sticking which lets you get to the ride cymbal with the right hand. Try to practice them without the 5/4 swing beat at first to get the muscle memory locked in and then add in the swing feel when you get the hang of it.
Fills 1 and 2 get you used to the 5/4 pattern by playing straight eighth notes and sixteenth notes, respectively.
Fill 3 is starts out with eighth note snare hits like fill 1, throws a rest and a quarter note tom hit to the ending.
Fill 4 switches back to a sixteenth note start, before switching to eighth notes and alternates between the snare and tom before the final note moves to the bass drum.
Fill 5 factors the bass drum in more and introduces the hi-hat to the fill. It starts on eighth notes and ends with sixteenths.
Learn how to play the double paradiddle around the drum kit in the next lesson.
