This free drum lesson is the second installment in a three-lesson series on drum fills played in 7/8 odd-time signature. In this video, Jared Falk teaches three intermediate 7/8 drum fills and discusses how these drum fills – or any other pattern for that matter – should be practiced. These drum fills incorporate 32nd notes, hand-to-foot combinations, and some cool cymbal patterns.
If you’ve never learned how to play drum fills in 7/8 odd-time signature, we encourage you to take on the free drum lesson “Beginner 7/8 Drum Fills” before going through this one. It’s very important that you take a step-by-step approach. This way, when you return to this free drum lesson after mastering the beginner 7/8 drum fills, you’ll be able to build on the concepts you acquired there. This will in turn have you learning these drum fills a lot quicker.
Once you’ve mastered these drum fills as notated, add the hi-hat foot pedal to the mix. This is a great way of working on 4-way independence, adding a different texture to your drum fills and keeping time. Start by adding the hi-hat foot to all the 8th notes. Once you feel extremely comfortable with it, play the hi-hat foot on every other 8th note. This will have you playing the odd numbered 8th notes on one measure and the even numbered 8th notes on the following measure. This can easily throw you off. Therefore, practice this approach slowly at first. Count out loud and use a metronome. Increase the speed of the click only when you feel comfortable with the tempo you’re practicing at.
Once you’re done with this free drum lesson, we encourage you to check the free drum lesson “Advanced 7/8 Drum Fills“. If you’d like to apply the tips provided with the free drum lesson “Learning 7/8 Odd Time“, on how to use drum fills in 4/4 to come up with variations in 7/8 odd-time signature, we encourage you to use the free drum lesson “Intermediate 16th Note Linear Drum Fills” as your guinea pig.