JohnnyLawRwb
Junior Member
Hi everyone. I'm new to legitimate drumming and need some help. As a background, I've played bass consistently for around 13 years and in various bands. I was in a death metal band around college and was always jealous of my drummer...I wanted to play so bad but I had none of the following: money, time, equipment or space for it. So I bought Rock Band as a substitute. I got pretty good, learning the basics and playing exclusively on Expert (you're as close to playing the song as possible, if you're unfamiliar), and was pretty satisfied.
Fast forward, graduated law school, found a job (thank God, market is poop), and decided to legitimately pursue drums. I picked up a cheap electronic kit (Ion Rocker, essentially an Alesis kit made for Rock Band but it's a legitimate kit), upgraded all of my heads to mesh, and bought an old Tama Power Glide with a Yamaha KP 65. I love it. Believe it or not Rock Band helped immensely in training my hands, separating my limbs, etc. I've translated it to a real kit and can play various full songs. My "skill" level is enough to play A Favor House Atlantic by Coheed & Cambria completely, if that helps give an indication of where I'm at. Also, air drumming in the car while driving has helped way more than I expected, especially in training my left foot, as I have to play bass with that in the car (I do realize how ridiculous this sentence is, btw).
Here's my problem. I don't know if my technique is off or I just need to develop speed, but I feel off with my kick. I haven't started double bass yet, FYI, not biting off more than I can chew, this is strictly one foot work. I'm working on triple kicks right now and just cannot get comfortable with it. The song I'm using as a start to practice is Emergency by Paramore, it has a lot of triples at a reasonable speed I feel like I can grasp. Here's a link if you want an example, they're all over the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJ8BZi3vTA
Anywho, I play heel up. And my heel is pretty high. I JUST learned to properly adjust my chair distance and height, and that has helped. However, I don't really get the simple mechanics that I should be doing. I have the ball/toes towards the middle front of the pedal. To play the faster kicks, I find myself tensing my calf/shin and almost twitching to try and get them, which is just a mess and I know is incorrect. I have no problem playing slower stuff on the kick, this song gives a good indication of my current "breaking" point in terms of speed, as I can't hit it consistently but can manage it a majority.
My friend/drummer of 13 years told me the correct motion is to keep your ball/foot in place and essentially drop your heel to do your hits. It's good when I can get it but it's inconsistent and the timing throws me off, since the hit is registering after the movement (snapping back the ball/toes to register the hit).
So I guess my question becomes, what is the actual driving force behind heel-up bass kicks, and can anyone describe the entire process in complete idiot language for me? When I do my quick twitches and other faster stuff, the force feels like my foot jumping off the pedal and smashing back down, like a hopping motion, quick eventually kills my shin/calf. If it's the leg, which is mostly what I'm reading, is it what my friend suggested or is it more of a lift/drop? What should my foot be doing, if anything?
Hope this all makes sense. Thanks for your help guys. Just trying to do it the right way and I can't find anything on this at this level. Sorry for the wall of text.
Fast forward, graduated law school, found a job (thank God, market is poop), and decided to legitimately pursue drums. I picked up a cheap electronic kit (Ion Rocker, essentially an Alesis kit made for Rock Band but it's a legitimate kit), upgraded all of my heads to mesh, and bought an old Tama Power Glide with a Yamaha KP 65. I love it. Believe it or not Rock Band helped immensely in training my hands, separating my limbs, etc. I've translated it to a real kit and can play various full songs. My "skill" level is enough to play A Favor House Atlantic by Coheed & Cambria completely, if that helps give an indication of where I'm at. Also, air drumming in the car while driving has helped way more than I expected, especially in training my left foot, as I have to play bass with that in the car (I do realize how ridiculous this sentence is, btw).
Here's my problem. I don't know if my technique is off or I just need to develop speed, but I feel off with my kick. I haven't started double bass yet, FYI, not biting off more than I can chew, this is strictly one foot work. I'm working on triple kicks right now and just cannot get comfortable with it. The song I'm using as a start to practice is Emergency by Paramore, it has a lot of triples at a reasonable speed I feel like I can grasp. Here's a link if you want an example, they're all over the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJ8BZi3vTA
Anywho, I play heel up. And my heel is pretty high. I JUST learned to properly adjust my chair distance and height, and that has helped. However, I don't really get the simple mechanics that I should be doing. I have the ball/toes towards the middle front of the pedal. To play the faster kicks, I find myself tensing my calf/shin and almost twitching to try and get them, which is just a mess and I know is incorrect. I have no problem playing slower stuff on the kick, this song gives a good indication of my current "breaking" point in terms of speed, as I can't hit it consistently but can manage it a majority.
My friend/drummer of 13 years told me the correct motion is to keep your ball/foot in place and essentially drop your heel to do your hits. It's good when I can get it but it's inconsistent and the timing throws me off, since the hit is registering after the movement (snapping back the ball/toes to register the hit).
So I guess my question becomes, what is the actual driving force behind heel-up bass kicks, and can anyone describe the entire process in complete idiot language for me? When I do my quick twitches and other faster stuff, the force feels like my foot jumping off the pedal and smashing back down, like a hopping motion, quick eventually kills my shin/calf. If it's the leg, which is mostly what I'm reading, is it what my friend suggested or is it more of a lift/drop? What should my foot be doing, if anything?
Hope this all makes sense. Thanks for your help guys. Just trying to do it the right way and I can't find anything on this at this level. Sorry for the wall of text.