CREATIVEDEVELOPMENT

Patterns & Fills

W r i t t e n B y

C l a u s T h y l s t r u p

unleash your creativity

If you’re looking for ways to open up your

creative side, then this is the book for you

DRUMMER Magazine

It provides the reader with a formidable

tool kit for developing creative potential

RHYTHM Magazine!

This is a superb resource; Very

user-friendly and thoughtfully presented

iDrum Magazine

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

PATTERNS & FILLSUNLEASH YOUR CREATIVITY

Claus Thylstrup

CREDITSPublished by: Claus ThylstrupISBN: 978-87-995595-1-03rd. edition October 2016, 3rd. print – October 2016

Author of notation and text: Claus ThylstrupFront cover and logo by: William ChristensenPictures by: Søborg Jensen Fotografi and Steen Elsted Rasmusen Fotografi – pg. 37+56Book Layout by: Martin Helbo, ActVisualVideos by: Mikkel Uttrup, Bissengade Studiet, AarhusVideo & sound editing: Mikkel Uttrup, Oliver Mønster Andersen and Claus Thylstrup

© Any duplication, adaption or arrangements of the notation contained in this book requires the written consent of the author. No part of this book may be copied or repro-duced in any way without permission.

TABLE OF CONTENTSSuggested Practising Methods 8

Notation Key 9

Warm Up Exercices 10

Basic Familiarization With Even And Uneven Groupings 12

Step By Step Method 16

Broken Doubles 22

Gospel 5’s 26

Hybrid Paradiddles 28

Quintuplets On Fire 30

Septuplets With Lemon 32

Rockin’ Sextuplets 34

Smooth Sextuplet Pattern 36

The Nine Fill 38

The Billy Cobham Variation 40

5 Note Groupings 42

7 Note Groupings 44

Back To The 80’s In Reverse 46

Tripping Triplets 48

Unstoppable Sextuplets 50

Tool Box 52

Recommended Listening 58

About the Author 59

FOREWORDS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is intended for musicians who can already play and who are able to read drum notation but often find themselves playing the same old fills and patterns over and over again. It’s designed to offer you a creative injection allowing you to continue to increase your skill set and expand your vocabulary.

The idea for writing this book came from often seeing drummers repeating the same fills and patterns regardless of the context. Some drummers tend to stick to the same couple of fills with which they get the job done and there is nothing wrong with that as such. With this book I intend to stimu-late the creative thoughts process when it comes to developing patterns and fills. This book also provides the reader with tools and methods that will help and strengthen the readers creativity and ability to develop patterns and fills.

Claus Thylstrup - London, July 2012 / Odense, 2016

Many thanks to: Pete Riley, Stu Roberts, Mike Sturgis, Jon Duff, Windsor McGilvray and Toby Drummond who I’ve had the pleasure of being taught, inspired and motivated by, John Smith for making this book possible, the staff and tutors at the Academy of Contemporary Music, Martin Helbo for all the support, Søren Nørris Christensen from Drum Limousine for all the support and my girlfriend, Stine Mia for all her support and for being able to put up with me.

... And at last but not least, all the amazing musicians in the U.K. and Denmark who I’ve had the privilege of sharing the stages with over the last many years.

6

INTRODUCTIONCreative Development consists of separate chapters which doesn’t follow a continuos pattern and that means you can skip between chapters as you like. Most chapters are based on a basic pattern or fill which is then shown in a series of different variations with altered orchestrations, stickings, sub-divisions etc.

Once you start to work through the pages you will soon notice that most of the patterns and fills in this book are notated across a whole bar or two bars but that doesn’t mean that you can’t split the pattern or fill up into sections to create a one or two beat pattern. The reason why it’s in whole bars is to give you a better understanding of how the pattern or fill is constructed and how it works. So, be creative and experiment. Split the bar up or mix and match it with other patterns and fills.

If you want to experiment with odd time signatures I have developed three methods for adapting common time patterns and fills into odd time signa-tures - These can be found on page 52.

... But always remember that; fills is a gentlemen’s sport that has to be played appropriately. Nothing is more important than the groove of a song so treat this content as a variety of spices. Add a little too much and your guests will never eat your food again but add just the right amount and they will keep coming back for more!

– Unleash your creativity, enjoy the content and have fun!

7

STEP BY STEP METHOD

The following chapters are each primarily based on one pattern or fill which I’ve named the ‘Basic Pattern’. Each basic pattern is then the starting point from which each chapter evolves.

A basic pattern can, hypothetically be any group of notes that form a pattern or fill, though in this case, most of the basic patterns are based on either famous fills, original fills or rudiments.

The Step by Step Method shows how the patterns in this book have been developed as well as giving you a tool that applies to any pattern from your pre-existing vocabulary. It offers you the option of creating new fills from the ashes of the old ones.

In the following chapters not all variations or steps of the creative process are shown or mentioned as the possibili-ties for developing variations are endless. The pattern and fill variations that I’ve selected for the book are the ones I know sound great and actually work in a musical context.

The Basic Pattern - The Starting PointYou can either choose to follow the process by using the Basic example Pattern shown below or you can pick a pat-tern of your own choice and work it through the step by step method.

For this example I chose a simple pattern consisting of two groups of seven notes phrased around 16th notes which leaves us two notes short so I added an additional two notes to make it fit into a 4/4 context.

Basic pattern

!The Step by Step Method is a creative tool that helps you to reinvent the patterns and fills you already know and create new exiting and unique material for your vocabulary.

16 | Chapter 4 | Step By Step Method

Creative Development Patterns and Fills

THE NINE FILLIntroduction to Chapter 12 - The Nine FillThe original creator of this pattern remains unknown. I got the pattern from London based drummer Leo Camer-on Sutherland a good few years ago. It wasn’t until I began experimenting with the orchestration (Step Four) that I realized the potential of this pattern. It was actually one of the first patterns I started to reinvent which later laid the foundation for this book.

It’s based on two groups of nine notes phrased in sextuplets. There are many options with this pattern and the ones shown in this chapter are just a small selection, meant to spark your creativity and desire to create your own varia-tions via the Step By Step Method.

– Learn the variations, then create your own.

38 | Chapter 12 | The Nine Fill

Basic pattern Video

1

3

2

Creative Development Patterns and Fills

7 NOTE GROUPINGSIntroduction to Chapter 15 – 7 Note GroupingsThe chapter is based on a pattern which was passed on to me by highly acclaimed U.K. drummer Pete Riley.

The following variations were developed through the Step By Step Method. Namely step 3 was applied, as it alters the subdivision and thereby allow the pattern to be versatile and applicable to many genres. As an example, the triplet variations 13-16, work particularly well in a swing/shuffle or halftime shuffle context.

The video below shows you a few selected variations, including the mentioned triplet variations 13 and 14.

Basic pattern Video

1

5

3

2

6

4

44 | Chapter 15 | 7 Note Groupings

Creative Development Patterns and Fills

UNSTOPPABLE SEXTUPLETSIntroduction to Chapter 18 – Unstoppable SextupletsThis pattern is a one of my personal favourites which I often use in solos or where I see fit. Because of the sextuplet subdivision it rolls smoothly across the bar with the accent adding a bit of edge.

50 | Chapter 18 | Unstoppable Sextuplets

Basic pattern Video

1

3

2

4

Bonus material

!

Creative Development Patterns and Fills