Professional Documents
Culture Documents
"ive
FreeDrumLessons.com Live
noticed that he performed full long full strokes with his foot, which was still a lot of work. So, as speed increases you will have to increase the level of control of the beater, and as such, your
technique will have to change with it. These grooves are a great way of not only practicing your single foot single strokes, but of practicing the swivel, which was teached on the previous lesson. As you develop your single foot speed and control, you can start thinking about dropping some extra notes with your left foot, to achieve some cool double bass drum patterns and rolls, just like the ones you saw on the previous page. The first two beats are the first two measures of the last patterns shown and are played with your right foot. The remaining beats are some ideas you can use to start adding some notes with your left foot.
Hand-To-Feet Combinations
One of the most common patterns to play between hands and foot for single bass drum players is the triplet hand-to-foot combination: R L F. Although being showed with the hands playing on the snare, feel free to experiment and move your hands around the kit,
just like Tim did in the live lesson. Some double bass players do the exact same thing but add an extra bass note with the second pedal, to play a 16th note hand-to-feet combination: R L F F. Try moving your hands around the kit with this one also. You can perform this pattern with a double pedal but you dont really have to. Great legends like
Buddy Rich, John Bonham, Ian Paice and Carl Palmer, just to name a few, could play this exact same pattern by using only one pedal. This enabled them to keep time with the hihat while doing so. The great problem of playing this pattern with a double pedal is leaving the hi-hat unused, which sometimes may hinder the bands time sense. The next pattern takes the two hand-to-feet combinations we have seen so far, and adds the hi-hat pedal to them, while the right foot takes care of all the bass drum strokes. This sequence starts with the triplet hand-to-foot combination and is followed by the 16th note hand-to-foot combination. As speed increases you can use the heel-toe for double
FreeDrumLessons.com Live
stroking with only one foot. This technique is teached on two live lessons: #2 and #19. You
can also use this idea of playing a double stroke with one foot while keeping time on the hi-hat, as a way to spice up your double pedal fills, interchanging between that and the double bass hand-to-feet combination.
going strong. A lot of the old school double bass players, like Carmine Appice, would keep time with their left foot on a bass drum pedal, instead of using the hi-hat. Since they were used to doing that on the hi-hat pedal, they just naturally switched to the left bass
drum pedal to do exactly the same. They would then add extra hits with the right foot to create some double bass grooves. Since the hi-hat is free, and you are still keeping time with the left foot, but on a bass drum pedal, you could put your foot in between the two
pedals and play them at the same time. This way, you keep a pulse for the band to follow and at the same time play double bass patterns. These last three grooves show the transitions between keeping time using only the hi-hat foot pedal, keeping time with the left bass drum pedal and playing the two pedals at the same time. Try transitioning from one groove to the other; this will give you a better feel for how these types of ideas can work. You can also use this concept in conjunction with the heel-toe technique to come up with some cool grooves like this next one.
FreeDrumLessons.com Live
Multi-Pedal Orchestration
Another great and different way of approaching double bass drumming comes in the form of multi-pedal orchestration. Now, instead of playing the left bass drum and hi-hat pedal at the same time, we will use different combinations between them to achieve some interesting ideas. In the first two measures you keep time by playing 8th notes
between the left bass drum and hi-hat pedals. On the next two measures we shake things up by keeping time, by playing one note on bass drum followed by two on the hihat pedal. In the last pattern you play a single paradiddle between the left foot pedals.
Rudiments
Playing rudiments with the feet will definitely increase the level of control you have over your bass drum pedals. For instance, Tim uses a lot of rudiments in his bass drum playing. You can listen to him playing the seven stroke roll on some of the solos. So if you want to practice rudiments with the feet, by all means go for it.
Heel-Down Playing
For acquiring speed with heel-down playing you have to learn how to control the beater. As for playing fast doubles while in this position, you can use your toes to do so.
FreeDrumLessons.com Live
making your leg work, since the down stroke is a result of gravity. So with this pedal, you have a really complete training for your legs.
y y y
3 3 3
y
3
y y y
3 3
y y y y
y y y
2) Double Bass Pattern for a Single Pedal, Dropping Notes With the Second Pedal (0:11:23s)
3 3 3 3
y y y
3 3 3 3
y y y
3 3 3 3
y y
3 3 3 3
y y y
3 3
y y y
3 3 3 3
y y y
3 3
y y y
3 3 3 3
y y
y y
y y y
FreeDrumLessons.com - Copyright 2007- 2010 Railroad Media, Inc. - All Rights Reserved - Licensed For Personal Use Only
3) Triplet Hand-to-Foot Combination - Move the Hands Around the Drums (0:13:07s)
R L
3
L
3
L
3
L
3
4) 16th Note Hand-to-Feet Combination - Move the Hands Around the Drums (0:13:28s)
R L R L R L R L
5) Single Bass Pedal Hand-to-Feet Combination - Move the Hands Around the Drums (0:14:12s)
R L
3
L
3
L
3
L
3
R L
R L
R L
R L
y y y y y y y y
6) Double Bass Pattern for a Single Pedal With Hi-Hat Foot Splashing (0:17:46s)
y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y o o o o o o o
7) Keeping Time With the Left Foot Hi-Hat Pedal (0:28:03s)
y y y y y y y
y y
y y () y y y y y y y
y y
y y
y () y
2
FreeDrumLessons.com - Copyright 2007- 2010 Railroad Media, Inc. - All Rights Reserved - Licensed For Personal Use Only
8) Keeping Time With the Left Foot Bass Drum Pedal (0:28:07s)
y y ( )
y y ( ) ( )
y ()
9) Keeping Time With the Left Foot Bass Drum and Hi-Hat Pedals (0:28:11s)
y () y y
y y y y () () () y y y y y y y y
y y y () y y y y y y
y y y y
y y y y
y y
y y y y
y y y
y y y y y
y y y
y y y
y y
y y y
y y
y y y
y y y y y
y y y y y
y y
y y
y y y
y y
11) Keeping Time With the Left Foot Bass Drum and Hi-Hat Pedals (0:30:22s)
3 3
y y
y y y
FreeDrumLessons.com - Copyright 2007- 2010 Railroad Media, Inc. - All Rights Reserved - Licensed For Personal Use Only
y
3
y y
y y
3 3
y y
3 3 3
y
3 3
y y y y y y y y
FreeDrumLessons.com - Copyright 2007- 2010 Railroad Media, Inc. - All Rights Reserved - Licensed For Personal Use Only