Blast beats

Tyrnox

Pioneer Member
Hey guys,

Earlier in the week I said that playing blastbeat's we're a great way to "train" your left hand if you will, someone asked me what a Blastbeat was, so I wanted to make a little video, unfortunatly I didn't have my camera at the time, so I made one now, better late then never right ?

Anyway's enjoy, this is really a great way to build up your left hand, and coordination with your basedrum's.

http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1EY11F369NFTF2HN2UNBIW21D7


p.s The video has a limited number of download's, hope it's a decent amount :(.
 
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Re: Blastbeat!

holy smokers! awsome video man! im sure a bunch of people will find this helpfull. however, its a bit hard to see when and how the sticks are hitting the snare and ride because of the speed. But other then that..thanks for posting this man!
 
Re: Blastbeat!

Thanks Dyaxe,

Hehe I thought about the speed problem before recording it...I played a little slower then usual so the camera would capt it better, and I was playing the ride in quarter notes ( I think that's the term in english ) instead of 16th's, normaly every hit on the basedrum would be accompanied with the ride. That should give you a general idea of the blastbeat.
 
Re: Blastbeat!

Are you playing the snare on 1 and 3 or 2 and 4? If you understand what I mean!?

Great playing btw!!
 
Re: Blastbeat!

Hmm I can't really say, when I joined the death Metal band i'm in about...well about a year ago now, I knew that I needed to practice alot on my double bass and single stroke's...so that's pretty much what I did for the past year i've been taking about 1 hour of my 3 hours or so of practice per day, and using that hour only for practicing Double bass, chop's, endurance and blastbeat's, to my metronome, so that's pretty much the result...I can still go faster but my camera doesn't capture it, my hand just blurs out and you can't see anything, so there wasn't much point to the video.

To answer your question CV, think of it like a very very fast version of a basic punk beat, the snare hit's in between your basedrum/ride ( or hat ) stroke's.
 
Re: Blastbeat!

BarryBuchanan said:
Hey!! i luv doing the blast beat!!! i am in a death metal/thrash band and it is cool as f**k!!!! it goes reli well with fat guitar and every 1 was like "wow" when i was doing it at our first gig!!! ive been playing 5 years and in the last year i hav got into double bass and speed drumming......i notice u also can put the double bass in with it!!!! Keep it up blast brother!!!! hehe

Blastbeat's are nifty at the appropriate spot but you really can't abuse of them because they get repetitive fast, often in Death metal you can listen to alot of group's which seem to misplace blastbeat's just for the sake of "being heavier"... I don't blast too much with my group because I really tend to follow the guitar's/bass alot for a better feel. I usualy play blast's just to get my left hand stronger, and it works wonders.

You are right about one thing though, blastbeat's aren't always the same, infact there are tons of different ways they can be played...

That's all for metal though...I really don't listen to as much as I used to before, i'm alot more into Tool, Dream Theater and Symphony X lately, and I would kill to find some musician's around here that would be game to start something around the likes of that music...
 
Re: Blastbeat!

That looked like a Stick Control exercise. I can't imagine what kind of music that would go with.
 
Re: Blastbeat!

RE............Blastbeat's are nifty at the appropriate spot but you really can't abuse of them because they get repetitive fast, often in Death metal you can listen to alot of group's which seem to misplace......................


I dont use them often i use the once in one song and twice on another song.........i try not to do them to often cos they r reli energy draining if you keep it going too long.... i got into the blast beat after i had got into slayer...i started playing 1&2&3&4& at lomardo's speed on the ride then tryed it with my left on the snare...i took me a bit but i got it in the end......but then i bought Slipknots "Disaster peices".....i noticed on the song "Eore" (or however u spell it) that Joey did the blast beat but did Double bass with it..i copyed it and my blast beat was done....but after you saying there are lots of direrent ways to play it i am gona try to find out more about the blastbeat!! thnx
 
Re: Blastbeat!

I couldn't get much out of that other than quarter notes on the ride.

Could you do another video where you just break each limb down super slow. Even if you don't know the right musical term, I need to see where the hands fall in relationship to the feet. I can't hear the double very cleanly because of the recording quality.

Man, I'd love to be able to play like that.

Stu
 
Re: Blastbeat!

Stu_Strib said:
I couldn't get much out of that other than quarter notes on the ride.

Could you do another video where you just break each limb down super slow. Even if you don't know the right musical term, I need to see where the hands fall in relationship to the feet. I can't hear the double very cleanly because of the recording quality.

Man, I'd love to be able to play like that.

Stu

The sound is a bit too distorted to hear it clearly, but for the most part it looks like quarters on the ride, 16th's on snare and 32nds on the bass.
 
Re: Blastbeat!

Yea I can make another video, not a problem just give me a little time I just woke up :D
 
3/4over5/4 said:
i want to get better at blast beats how do you suggest i go about doing this. ie good things to practice
I guess I would just practice blast beats ;-)
 
theres variations on the blast beats.

the most common is a 4/4 pattern with a cymbal/bass on 1234 and a snare on the ands.

another popular blast beat is snare, cymbal, and bass on 1234 and on the ands. this one is much harder to play because keeping all three appendeges on the same beat is frustraing..

the best practice advice is to start slow, or even better, become proficient at basic beats like the standard rock beat and cut time beat. when you can do those in your sleep, blast beats are no problem.
 
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