Renegade Drum Fills

Another short one today, but it includes 5 different fills building on a theme.

The examples below are taken from a recent performance with my band These Guys Live during a cover of the Styx song 'Renegade.' (And, in case you're wondering, no these aren't the exact fills from the recording. I honestly don't even know what those are. I'd have to listen to the recording again to pick those up. ;-) These are my improvisations working with what the other instruments in my band are playing. You'll notice the first 4 fills all end the exact same way — a snare flam on beat 3 followed by 3 eighth notes on the cymbals and bass drum. This repeating motif accentuates the chord changes at the end of each phrase that the band is playing, but I change the beginning of each fill to build the intensity and excitement as this section progresses.

Fill #1 leads into the section with a simple 16th note pattern. But the dynamics of the accents on the first two 16ths of each phrase and the bass drum on the last 16th makes it sound more interesting. Fill #2 is more understated with just a single grouping of 16th note triplets on the bass drums on the '&' of beat 2 leading into the flam on beat 3. Fill #3 gets busier by adding sextuplets between the hands and the feet on the first two beats. And Fill #4 takes the sextuplets to the next level by adding flams on the eighth notes and playing the remaining sextuplet notes with the bass drums. And finally, Fill #5 is a variation of the first fill that ends the section and brings us into the bridge.