Weekly Drum Lesson: Dotted Quarter Note Phrasing

Hello drummers! 

In this video lesson, we're going to focus on Dotted Quarter Note phrasing to create 2 bar drum fills.

A dotted quarter note is a unit of time that's one and a half beats in length.

This is, in fact, a polyrhythm. Specifically, it's one of the two forms of the 3:2 polyrhythm. The ratio means that one voice is playing 3 evenly spaced notes in the same amount of time that the other voice is playing 2 evenly spaced notes. Let's try that out. We'll do the quarter notes (that's the 3) with the left foot, and then the dotted rhythm with one of our hands. 

Now that we’ve done that, let’s explore a few ways we can practice this type of phrasing around the drums.

Finally, we’ll put it all together into a complete phrase by combining it with a rock beat.

I hope this lesson has inspired you to practice and create your own fill variations using this type of phrasing. If you have any questions please leave a comment, and of course, like and subscribe. That's all for now, thanks for watching!