Lesson 10 of 15DrumsIntermediate

Combining triplets and straight sixteenths

5:28

Alex Reeves shows how to mix straight eighths and sixteenths with triplet-based sextuplets in your drum fills, moving between duple and triple time.

Part of the courseFills In Time: Drum Fills & Time-Feel in 15 Lessons15 lessons (1h 26m)

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What's in the course

15 lessons (1h 26m) · 1 free
    • 01. Locking on

      Free lesson

      4:27

    • 02. Moving around the kit: Some basic ideas

      4:37

    • 03. Short fill-ins

      5:43

    • 04. Longer fill-ins

      4:55

    • 05. Playing with music

      4:51

    • 06. Tightening up the Rhythm

      7:00

    • 07. Faster beats

      5:31

    • 08. Triplet phrases: snare drum only

      7:01

    • 09. Adding triplet phrases to fills

      6:11

    • 10. Combining triplets and straight sixteenths

      You are here

      5:28

    • 11. The Shuffle feel

      5:48

    • 12. Dynamics

      6:37

    • 13. The use of long notes and space

      4:54

    • 14. Drum rolls

      5:22

    • 15. The remainder

      8:24

Lesson transcript

Lesson 10: Mixing Triplet and Straight Fills

Welcome to lesson 10! In this lesson, we'll be:

  • Mixing up our triplet fills and straight fills.

Four Beat Fills

In the exercises that follow, I'll be showing you the four beat fills from the book. However, when you move on from these, it is important that you play fills of all lengths:

  • 1 beat
  • 2 beats
  • 3 beats

Exploring Interpretations

Later on in this lesson, we'll be looking at other interpretations of these phrases. We can also:

  • Play these with different stickings.
  • Add the bass drum.

Putting It All Together

Next, we can play some of these phrases in their simplest forms. If we put them all together, we can play this kind of thing.

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Meet your guru

Alex Reeves

Alex Reeves

Alex is a freelance musician who has performed live and in the studio with artists as diverse as Dizzee Rascal, Unkle, Bat for Lashes, Guy Garvey and Elbow. He has played headline slots at all the major UK festivals, including televised appearances on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage, Oxygen Main Stage and T In The Park. International TV performances also include Live on MTV, the Jools Holland Hootenanny and The BBC Electric Proms with Dizzee Rascal.

On stage Alex has played with artists who have scored number one singles and albums all over the world, including Boy George, The Jones Girls and Johnny Hates Jazz. Alex has also been Musical Director for Island Records' Cocknbullkid, produced an album for Lotte Mullan, and performed live with Mercury nominated rapper Ty, American Blues legend Earl Thomas and singer-songwriter Ezio.

Alex has recorded in all the major studios in London, including Abbey Road, Angel, Air and Rak, and runs his own private drum studio from East London's Fortress complex. Recorded highlights at The Drum Fortress include the top 5 single Shine with the Lovefreekz, Wretch 32's Breathe, UNKLE's collaboration with Nick Cave and the beat for American rapper Nas's single Nasty. He has also played drums and percussion on major TV adverts for companies that include McDonalds, X-Box and Toyota, provided beats for computer games like Sega Rally 2 and Shellshock 2, and appeared on many TV and film soundtracks, including the major release of Brideshead Revisited.

Alex writes a regular tuition column for Drummer magazine, has written a book with accompanying DVD, and recorded a 1960s funk breaks sample CD. In his MusicGurus course, Fills In Time, he distils all that studio and stage experience into 15 quick lessons that sharpen your time-feel and build a vocabulary of drum fills you can drop straight into your own playing. And yes - he still calls his mum every week.

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