Fills In Time - Improve Time-feel and Drum Fills in 15 Quick Lessons

with Alex Reeves

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Intermediate 15 lessons (1h 26m) Backing tracks included Mobile, Tablet + Desktop

This course is the equivalent of taking  drum lessons to sort out your drum fills... except you'll be learning with Alex, member of the iconic group Elbow who has performed live and in the studio with artists as diverse as Dizzee Rascal, Nick Cave, Nas and Paul McCartney.

Each lesson will take a couple of weeks of short, regular practice to complete, at which point you can move on to the next one. In each lesson, Alex shows you how to make the simple, everyday drum beats sound amazing.

He'll also show you how to approach your practise time efficiently and with maximum benefit.
No messing around, no useless flashy stuff, no extra trimmings or fattening side dishes - just good, wholesome, straight-forward lessons for improving timing, groove and feel for everyday use.

At the end of this course, your timing, feel, groove, phrasing, timing, timing and timing will all be improved, giving you an extremely solid basis on which to build your drum playing.

In this course, Alex covers:

  • Timing, and locking on to a groove
  • Moving around the kit: concepts, short and long fill-ins
  • Playing with music
  • Tightening up your rhythm and playing faster beats
  • Adding triplet phrases to your playing & playing a "Shuffle" feel
  • Dynamics
  • Using long notes and spaces
  • Playing drum rolls

This course is aimed at drummers that would like to improve their timing and groove.

"I believe that all drummers, whatever their level, can learn from this. In putting together these lessons, it wasn't my aim to give the student an exhaustive supply of fills, but rather to demonstrate an approach that can be applied to all drum beats and fills. By the end of the course, the student will have a practical method to good all-round time-playing. It is my intention that the student will use the Fills In Time course as a step-by-step approach to improving and solidifying the timing within section changes, eventually applying it to their own ideas."
-- Alex

Meet the Guru Alex Reeves

Player reviews

“Alex Reeves is an innovative drummer and drum teacher who is capable of conveying his excitement and ehtusiasm for the instrument to all those around him. His clear and concise explanations and methods make learning the drums a joy. He takes the student through each stage in a logical order, ensuring that the full alphabet is presented and allowing you, the student, to fully express yourself with confidence when sat behind the drum kit. I speak from experience when I say this, as I am a student of Alex's. In the time that I have had the privilege of studying with him, he has helped me to fully udnerstand the workings of building a solid foundation for other musicians. These players can then exercise their imagination to the full, knowing that the beats we provide are solid, exact, and played with the prescribed level of feeling and groove. Balance and dynamics, as well as the very basics, are the essential elements of any great drummer. Alex will take you through those phases, building upon each element and turning you into a musician that will have players dialing your number to request your drumming skills. I hope that you have as much fun and are as inspired as I have been when working through this book. Alex Reeves undertands all of the vital ingredoients that will take you to a higher level of playing but, crucially, he makes putting in the hours of graft fun, as you work your way to becoming the drummer that you aspire to being. Enjoy.”

Ian Croft, student of Alex Reeves and Editor of Drummer Magazine