PTP 2.4 Drum Fills
production through performance
2.4 Drum Fills // Lesson Plan
LESSON OBJECTIVE
Students will be able to write and record a drum fill that connects two four-measure phrases.
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PREPARATION
Listen to teacher and student selected songs together and identify drum fills.
Watch live performance videos of student’s favorite acts to SEE drum fills in action.
Listen to music as a class and have students count the number of measures within a phrase. Instruct them to clap at the beginning of each phrase. They will soon be able to intuit four-measure phrases.
Give students time to write two drum patterns on the drum fill organizer.
Have them write a drum fill by moving the subdivision from the hi hat to either the snare, tom, or kick drums in the second half of the transition measure.
Play a student selected song and have students play their drum patterns and transition measure silently on their desks to practice playing in time and successfully executing the transition measure.
Instruct students to record their drum patterns along with the template audio.
assessment
Check the organizers for the following errors:
Patterns in the different phrases that are the same.
Drum fills that are difficult to perform.
Overly symmetric drum patterns.
Look at the piano roll of their performance individually.
Have a conference with the student about the quality of the steady beat, the evenness of their subdivision, and the overall effect of their drum patterns.
Give students the opportunity to assess themselves using the rubric.