First things first - get your free transcription/study guide here.
Today’s video is aspirational. No one should feel bad about their level of improvisation on the drums, any more than I might feel bad about my lack of aptitude at deep sea diving or the Greek language. It’s almost entirely a function of how much time you put in.
So I want to give you four principles to aim for as you work to improve your fills on the drums. In the hopes of narrowing your focus from the infinite potential things you could be working on. By focussing on these 4, my guess is you’ll improve faster.
When playing fills, or indeed any improvisation on the drums, we’re trying to be a few things at once. And you can probably guess the things:
Not boring, in control, maintaining our sense of the barline where appropriate.
And here’s the kicker - it’s not like there’s some metaphysical Simon Cowell who’s going to tell you if your fills are good or wack. Ultimately, you’re still the judge.
But these 4 criteria will help you pinpoint your direction of travel more minutely. Hopefully.
Plus, for each “test question”, I also propose exercises to help you improve that part of your fills.
I hope this will make you feel better about your drumming, and give you some tools to get a little growth during the last few weeks of the summer.
See you soon!