Free Drum Lessons

What The Flam Fill?

The flam accent can make for some interestingly cool drum fills when you move it around the kit. This lesson explores some fun fills based on the flam accent.

Classic Drum Break From Arabella

The pre-chorus drum break rocks a Bonham-esque feel. These grooves have some great syncopation and will help to build your 8th note hi-hat foot coordination.

Drum Fill From Smoke On The Water

The guitar riff from Smoke on the Water seems to get all of the attention. Well, not it in this lesson. We're going to focus on the classic fill that leads into the first chorus of the song. Of course, we'll also look at some variations and ways to use this fill with our own beats.

Four Drum Fills to Start the New Year

Start your year with a few drum fill ideas and a simple technique for re-orchestrating drum fills around the toms to create a melodic layer.

Syncopated 'E' Drum Fills

This lesson explores four drum fill ideas that feature the crash and bass to accent the Es.

"AH"nother Take on Drum Fills

Drummers are often locked into the technique of playing a crash cymbal on beat 1 when coming out of a drum fill. There's a good reason for that: it works well in a lot of situations.

Every Third Sixteenth

Each of the fills above share a basic accented sixteenth-note pattern. Accents are played every third sixteenth note. In fills 1 through 3, the accents begin on beat 1. Fills 4 through 6 begin the accent pattern on the "&" of beat 1.

Breaking Out of the 4/4 Rut

This lesson explores a slick alternative to playing in 4/4. The grooves are designed to be very similar to 4/4, but because they're actually in 7/8, the last would-be 8th note is missing. Stepping outside of your comfort zone is a great exercise to keep your drumming mind fresh.