I had been frustrated for years at not being able to technically. Heeltoe technique news newspapers books scholar jstor august 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message. There are two basic ways to press down on a bass pedal, heel up and heel down. Heeltoe technique is a foot technique that drummers use to be able to play single strokes or double strokes on the bass drum, hihat, or other pedals. Still shot from 1964 performance today i want to briefly discuss feathering the bass drum. The easiest foot techniques involve playing with your. I am able do this by suspending my foot over the bass drum pedal with my heel up, and using only my toes to contact the pedal. Learning proper bass drum technique at an early stage is key. Heel down is indeed betteras long as you have your throne adjusted this way. Once youre able to play a clean sounding single stroke roll with the flat foot technique, move on to the free drum lesson double bass drum beats.
Good technique on the bass pedal will help you play faster and with more power. Basic bass drum technique generally falls into two categories. It consists in charging the beater and release it into the skin with a simple flick of the ankle with the heel attached. However, even at the slowest counts, i am getting a double hit on the bass drum and i know that is not the desired. I am a heel down player both on the kick drum and hi hats. Previously weve looked at a number of physical and mechanical ergonomic factors affecting bass drum technique. When i play heel down it feels like im working a lot harder because im trying not to bury the beater. I also recommend playing along with the simple exercises in this video from drumeo to.
However, after practice most people are able to play the kick drum a lot faster with heel down. When i wrote bass drum control in 1964, it was at the request of drummers who wanted exercises to practice for hands and bass drum. I have tried, and have not given up, learning how to play heel up and have experimented with heeltoe, swivel and slide techniques always returning to the comfort of heel down. These two techniques are the ones behind most of the strokes youll ever play on the bass drum and with the hihat foot pedal. Our feet are an important part of how we express ourselves on the drum set. This position solely relies on the ankle to be the pivot. Follow these five tips to improve your bass drum technique. Ill be explaining the benefits of both heel up and heel down drumming, and how you will be able to improve your overall foot technique when drumming. Some drummers have really good speed using the all heeldown method, but i couldnt get. Take a couple of exercises from that free drum lesson and play the foot patterns at half the speed using heelup or heeldown every other measure. The key to a successful drummer is knowing how to play.
Soul on bassrudiments revisitedartificial techniquetwomeasure jazz drum solos phrased in threetake a breakcoordination patterns with a dotted 18. Heel down bass drum technique exercises james payne. It is recommended that you develop double bass drum technique, single bass drum technique, heel up technique, and heel down technique. Which technique is the best is a huge debate amongst the drumming community. In order to develop bass drum control and strength, i always have my drumming techniques, foot technique bass drum control, bass drum techniques, heel down, heel down technique. There are several combinations in dealing with the bass drum pedal. The answer to the above question is that it depends which technique you. Through ergonomic studies it was proposed that a heeloperated bass pedal could alleviate these issues. You start this technique by holding the beater against the head of the bass drum by pressing down on the pedal with the heel up.
Bass drum secrets includes over 15 hours of video training to help you improve your bass drum speed, power, and control. Using various heel up and heel down techniques, one obtains a range of benefits and musical expressions that are hard to match when using only a single approach to the bass drum. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drums diameter much greater than the drums depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Before i start i did look through old posts to see if there was already a heel down thread that i could peruse but did not find what i was looking for. But if youre going to be playing many styles of music, e. Heel down, heel up, to mash or not to mash the bass drum beater, that is. When using this technique it is important to play the stroke with the ball of the foot as you drop back down, allowing the heel to drop and. Begin from a position where the heel of the foot is suspended off the floor. How to have effective bass drum technique the new drummer. I am an advocate of heel up playing, i use heel down for ballads and softer. Heel down is definitely favored for better dynamics. Feathering technique off beat with michael aubrecht. The free drum lesson on essential bass drum techniques teaches you how to play the bass drum using heelup and heeldown.
Ive been told that you do not want to bury the beater. Take the time to read through this article to get a few tips and tricks to help develop your bass drum technique. If youre a rocker, then heel up and loud all of the way. Bass drum control revised written by colin bailey, bk cd pack. However, the heeldown position relies on a limited range of physical movement that being the foot, with heel rested throughout, moving upwards to release the pedal board and beater, then moving back down to depress the pedal board, producing. Most people tend to naturally play the bass drum pedal with the heel up. But keep in mind that you can still achieve speed using the most common techniques like heel up, heel down, or heel to toe. I am trying to practice a heel down on my bass drum, and have been doing it as simply as possible. They had heard me use a lot of bass drum in my solos. This guy plays a straight forward heal down technique with all the action coming from the. Regardless of whether you play double bass heelup, heeldown, or a combination of both, a number of leg muscles and muscle movement patterns need to be developed see fig.
That being said, you will only practice the motion of heel up single strokes. Drum set fundamentals by bob breithaupt the fundamental stroke of the hands and feet the wrist is the primary element in the drum stroke the bass drum strokeheel up and heel down the hihat strokeheel up, heel down, rocking the fundamental role of the limbs in swing. In this lesson we will discuss the development of bass drum control, as well as ankle strength. Heel down bass drum technique exercises james payne youtube. Therefore, proper bass pedal technique is extremely important for playing the bass drum effectively. For the last couple of months weve worked on footwork combinations for single bass and double bass. Heel down is one of the techniques that can be used on the bass drum pedal. The heel up technique worked great for loud rock music. Get double bass secrets and links to double bass drum books, videos, tabs, and double bass drum lessons dvd. Strictly technique bass drum control modern drummer. Personally, i do not believe in sticking with either, and depending on the style and venue, i will use both.
The heel down position is just what the name implies. Increase bass drum speed with heeltoe technique drum. But as i got more experienced and played in different musical situations, i had a need for a medium volume bass drum technique that had the power of the heel up method but did not mash the beater into the bass drum head. Contents include bass drum technique fundamentals including heeldown and heelup playing, playing in vs. One of the most frequent questions for drummers is heel up or down on the bass pedal. You feather a bass drum by striking it very lightly with your bass drum beater. Actually, this is no different from fidgeting actually. Bass drum foot technique how my feet have evolved learn. Strictly technique bass drum control modern drummer magazine. Learn heel down, heel up and how to unbury the bass drum beater. Bass drum lessons develop your bass drum technique. Please note that there are a million ways to play double strokes. Bass drum technique is one of the most widely overlooked aspects in effectively playing and studying the drums.
How to practice heel up technique movement without a drum. With any bass drum technique, if youre experiencing pain, stop. Its called the heeltoe technique and once you develop it, you will be able to play. I know when i play quiet, i like doing the heeldown technique, i get better.
Hello all, im looking to soon begin a period of intensive focus on my foot technique and am in the process of gathering some study materials. The ideas in this book are my personal approach to single bass drum technique. In fact, we work hard to train our feet to act like hands. The concept of feathering was used primarily in early jazz music. These are just a few bass drum essentials every drummer should know. This book has completely changed the way i play the kick pedal. Im starting a little late here but still want to try and do some things right. Knowing how to perform these techniques is one thing, knowing how to develop them is another.
One of the things that is great about this book is that the cd gives some. There are a number of things you can try to boost your drum technique. Lets work on shifting the control from leg motion to ankle motion with the heel down technique with this great exercise. Standard, toeoperated, bass drum pedals require the user to have both leg coordination and strength, both of which can be troublesome for the average drummer. Youll have to learn to move your foot out of the way to let the beater rebound naturally. Im having problems with heel down bass drum technique. Griffin double kick drum pedal model p available at. Now most drummers have heard of both of these, yet they choose to only practice one.
Double bass drum how to balance or rest the left foot. A good exercise for developing heeldown bass drum technique is to practice without a spring. The heeltoe technique is a combination of the first two bass drum techniques, and is the equivalent of the pushpull technique with the feet. For example, if you want to be a speed metal drummer and play singles at 220 bpm, in other words super fast double bass, then you may want to try the swivel technique. For quiet double strokes with the bass drum ie for jazz or any other time when quieter playing is required a heeldown method is preferable, but that is not addressed in this article. Once you can play a steady beat using both techniques try to find the beat and play along with playalong cd 3. Heel toetoe downtoe toe bass drum technique youtube. The first motion of this technique comes when you let your leg come down freely on to the bass drum pedal, performing a heel stroke.
Here is a video tutorial going through double strokes with the feet. Now that you know the proper technique for playing the bass drum and getting a good rebound, practice the following exercises. Double kick drumming involves both of your feet instead of just one and will allow you to play faster, more complicated beats, fills, and solos. Stanton demonstrates the heel down and heel up techniques for playing the bass drum. This time, well add a technique that i use to easily play highspeed runs using a single foot. Heel down bass drum technique hey guys, just wondering when you play bass drum using heel down, is the beater suppose to lay on the head when youre not playing. One of the things that is great about this book is that the cd gives some very good information about foot technique, pedal adjustment, seating position, and head tuning to get the results you hear on the cd.
There are two main techniques used with playing your bass drum pedal. The heel down technique worked great for soft bands. Through ergonomic studies it was proposed that a heel operated bass pedal could alleviate these issues. Heel down bass drum technique pearl drummers forum. This techniques origins are often credited to my favorite drummer papa jo jones. Matt ritter unburying the beater dvd colin bailey bass drum technique dvd colin bailey bass drum control book dom. Basic time is created through the ride cymbal and hi hat in. We talk about our foot technique as if we were talking about religion. A bass drum, or kick drum, is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch.
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