Bass drum technique

M

Mike_In_KC

Guest
I know there have been a million threads on this - and I apologize in advance for a shoddy search of past threads. At one point I thought I had it - doubles with my right foot that is, using something close to the constant release technique. I say close because I am not 100% sure I am doing it properly. My question/situation is this - when I drop my ankle (using a practice pad) I often times accidentally get doubles with that down stroke. Ideally I would like to get a single hit when I drop my ankle and then using the ball of my foot as the fulcrum get the second hit on what I think is the upstroke. I suppose I could refine my technique and simply get the doubles with my ankle drop but I suspect this is not the right way to do it. Is it normal during the learning process to get the accidental doubles I mentioned? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. This is very frustrating - I have always been a good athlete, even very good - but this is kicking my a$$.

Here are two bad videos that shows what I am talking about...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivoKK-XTFj4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3yS0GRhM30

Listen for the accidental doubles throughout - most prominent near the end - :31 second mark for example in the first video

Thanks in advance -

MM
 
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I don't know what that technique is but you could use more of a slide technique. Start further back for the first hit, and slide up to the normal position for the 2nd. That's the classic method.

As for the accidental double... it's a bit hard to tell but maybe you're mashing the pedal a bit and you just need to pull away earlier.
 
I can't tell from the camera angle exactly what you're doing. I've been working on continuous release (not doubles though) for a few yr. and I'm just now getting close to being able to use it in real live playing. I normally play heel up for everything. I have only dabbled in heel toe. (doubles). I could be wrong, but I think continuous release is opposite of heel toe. So it will be toe, then the ball of your foot. You don't actually use your heel. I've never gotten Dbl. with the heel stroke. I have seen on you tube a guy play fast Dbl. kick using only his heels. I tried it just for kicks, and could do it for a few sec. but I don't think it's valid technique. Here's a guy who plays continuous release like I do, only much better. He shows how to do it pretty well, and he is playing singles. Good luck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNg_9b8FBhA
 
Thanks lefty and Dre - thought this would have elicited more responses but w/e
 
You could always try the opposite of what you are trying now, use your ankle with the ball of your foot for the first stroke, then drop your heel for the second. When you raise your heel back after the second stroke, you are already doing the first stroke again. So basically it is a heel up and down motion with the first stroke happening at each heel up move.
 
MrInsanePolack said:
You could always try the opposite of what you are trying now, use your ankle with the ball of your foot for the first stroke, then drop your heel for the second. When you raise your heel back after the second stroke, you are already doing the first stroke again. So basically it is a heel up and down motion with the first stroke happening at each heel up move.
Click to expand...

Thanks MIP and others!
 
Can you show a side view of your pedal and move the beater around a bit so we can get a sense of how tight the spring is? There could be a number of things going on here that are working against you:

1. Your technique. Don't get discouraged, I've been focusing heavily on my bass pedal technique (almost obsessively at the expense of other things) for over a year now. there is improvement, but its slow and you almost won't notice it. Your leg will eventually start figuring out the most effective/efficient way to play.

2. Spring tension. Too tight and you are using a lot of energy to play. Too loose and you won't get a quick enough "back swing" in the beater to do fast doubles, triples or more. I find a medium to medium-high tension works best for me. I have the same pedal you do (eliminator). With a higher tension I can have my heel down on the floor in a resting position without the beater touching the head. It's a good starting position to be in and your leg is rested. More importantly, this helps you play without burying the beater.

3. Where your foot is on the pedal. Too far up and you won't get good rebound. Too far back and you can't control the pedal very well. The right spot will also assist in not burying the beater

Play with these things and see if anything helps.

I posted a thread about this some months ago with a video before and a video after I got a lot of advice on how to improve my technique. See it here.
 
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Dignan said:
Can you show a side view of your pedal and move the beater around a bit so we can get a sense of how tight the spring is? There could be a number of things going on here that are working against you:

1. Your technique. Don't get discouraged, I've been focusing heavily on my bass pedal technique (almost obsessively at the expense of other things) for over a year now. there is improvement, but its slow and you almost won't notice it. Your leg will eventually start figuring out the most effective/efficient way to play.

2. Spring tension. Too tight and you are using a lot of energy to play. Too loose and you won't get a quick enough "back swing" in the beater to do fast doubles, triples or more. I find a medium to medium-high tension works best for me. I have the same pedal you do (eliminator). With a higher tension I can have my heel down on the floor in a resting position without the beater touching the head. It's a good starting position to be in and your leg is rested. More importantly, this helps you play without burying the beater.

3. Where your foot is on the pedal. Too far up and you won't get good rebound. Too far back and you can't control the pedal very well. The right spot will also assist in not burying the beater

Play with these things and see if anything helps.

I posted a thread about this some months ago with a video before and a video after I got a lot of advice on how to improve my technique. See it here.
Click to expand...

Thanks man! I will try to get a new video posted this afternoon - thanks again. I have been using probably too much spring tension - I will play with that. My default playing position for non-fast stuff is heal down - and I try to not bury the beater, so your advise jibes with what I want to do.
 
johnhavart said:
Fantastic technique, it seems to be the secret for playing double bass single strokes fast ?
Any other technique for doing this (all ankles ?)
Click to expand...

Ive tried this technique with some success, its basically like push/pull for the hands, or constant release. Its very similar to doubles and feels very similar as well, if you don't like using double strokes because of the feel, you probably wont like this technique either. It does have a different accent feel to it though which is pretty cool.

I start on the ball of both feet then drop my heel on my right quickly followed by my left heel then hit the right with ball of my right quickly followed by my left. its easy to work up slowly off the pedals to get the motion. R heel, L heel, R ball, L ball repeat.
 
Templeman said:
Ive tried this technique with some success, its basically like push/pull for the hands, or constant release. Its very similar to doubles and feels very similar as well, if you don't like using double strokes because of the feel, you probably wont like this technique either. It does have a different accent feel to it though which is pretty cool.

I start on the ball of both feet then drop my heel on my right quickly followed by my left heel then hit the right with ball of my right quickly followed by my left. its easy to work up slowly off the pedals to get the motion. R heel, L heel, R ball, L ball repeat.
Click to expand...

I just watched the video of the kid explaining the technique and I can't wait to get home to noodle with it - thanks again guys.

MM
 
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