fill advice please.....

[timandjes]

Hello- I'm a drummer of 20 years, self taught. I believe I could improve on end of song fills. I've tried tightening up the tom heads quite a bit to be increase my ability to "roll" around the kit... But, I like the low tone of having the tom heads not so tight... What do some of you do? Just "hit" the toms and focus most of the "rolling" on the snare, or do you do some rolling around the whole kit?

Any advice on how I could improve my fills would be appreciated...

Thanks!

[ZEKE SAYER]

Just tune the heads to where you think they sound good. Then just learn to go with it that way. It's not going to be perfict the first or second time. Practice, practice and practice.

Oh! and by the way.......PRACTICE!!!!


zeke

[boose44]

You don't say what style of music you're playing, but try listening to as many live versions of what ever it may be as you can.

That should help you come up with a couple of different distinct endings, and then you can develop variations on them to keep them interesting.

-bruce

[rushfan33]

Hi.... with all due respect, this should be a nobrainer for you! When you say 20 years, are you talking 20 solid years or ? I'm also a drummer of 20 years so I'm not talking out of my ass here..... my only recommendation is to do precisely what Zeke said, and nothing else. The feel of your heads (i.e., tightness or loosness) should only influence your playing.... not support it! You should be able to execute the same fills on ant type of head or drum. As for the fills, let the energy of the song's end dictate the parts. Personally, I don't play fills at the end just for the sake of an ending song. Sometimes a song's end may require toning down or remaining steady. I'm sure I'm not telling you what you don't already know... but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

RF