Broken Sixteenth Note Fills - Drum Lessons

In this video lesson, we’re going to be going through some broken 16th note fills. Now you might be asking what does broken mean well, all that means is that I’m not playing constant 16th notes. I’m breaking it up with rests. Now, if you don’t know exactly how these rests are counted you can go to the theory section of the free drum lessons website. Otherwise, let’s jump right into number one on the provided sheet music. You can see it starts with a group of 3/16th notes, then I have a 16th note rest. Then I start again on the two E and A three and then I have a 16th note rest on the E of three. [Demonstration] Number two is a broken 16th note fill played around the drums. I start on the snare drum then I go to the high tom, to the mid tom and the low tom. Make sure you count these out loud slowly at first so you can first hear how they sound. Then when you get comfortable with it you can speed it up. [Demonstration] Number three is a little bit funny to count as there’s two eighth note rests in a row. I’ll play it for you now. [Demonstration] Take a look at number four on the sheet music. You can see beat one, there’s a 16th note rest and then we start on the E of one with our left hand. Now the reason I started with my left hand is so that at the end of the fill I would be able to crash with my right back into the beat. I’ll play it for you now and so you can hear how it sounds. [Demonstration] The fifth beat on this page is a personal favorite. Now you can see I’ve written in the sticking above the notes. Take a look at beat four. It starts with the left hand, left-right-left-right, that’s because on this one I actually crash with my left hand. [Demonstration] The last broken 16th note fills on the provided sheet music starts with an eighth note rest. Now, keep in mind, one eighth note rest equals two 16th notes. I’m going to play it for you now and then take it to your kit and practice it real slow. [Demonstration] These are just a couple of variations of broken 16th note fills. When you get to your kit you can try and make up some of your own. Have some fun with them.