stuart

Bass Drum Doubles
HOW IS THE BASS DRUM DOUBLE STROKE ACHIEVED? I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN THE TECHNIQUE BUT CANT FIND OUT ANYWHERE!!

peter

Stuart,

Remember how it was, when you did it with your hands? It's not dissimilar. You have to practice, practice, practice.

By the way, I am preparing to move to a double bass configuration for the first time. I plan on duplicating what I did for me right-foot, with my left, emphasing double-strokes in the same way.

I'm not sure how your right foot is but if it's decent, consider what I said about duplicating the routines for the left foot. For instance, play all your beats, using only your left-foot in practice. Do EVERYTHING you did with the right, with the left. If you can't, slow it down, until you can and remember that slow is good.

__________________
To Virgil,
A Drummer Who is Changing the World

peter

One more thing:

Check your pedal. What are you using? Starting out with a decent pedal design can help.

__________________
To Virgil,
A Drummer Who is Changing the World

STAVROPOULOS

i agree with peter,stuart.try also to play grooves using your left foot on the hi-hat.if you practise these things,like peter said too,most probably in one month's time your left foot will be far more better!good luck man!oh,if you want to,tighten your left bass drum pedal too!anyway,do what u wanna,the choices are yours pal!

Fede

Ofcourse it's good to have a decent set of pedals or better, but the pedal should never be a "sleeping-pillow" (directly from Danish - hope you get the picture). Never let the pedal be the excuse for your feet not being able to play what you want them to. Ofcourse a pedal can be so bad that is actually prohibiting you from meaningful practice, but any pedal that's decent or better should be just fine.

I'm sure Virgil will be able to carry out the 200-210 BPM doubles on a "decent" pedal, not only top-notch ones. That means you should be able to do that too....

No? - Then it's your feet you need to work on - not the pedals. (Don't feel bad - I can't play doubles @ 200BPM either, so I need to work on my feet too...

__________________
www.intakt.dk

peter

I didn't mean to imply that you should
ever rest on your equipment. Forgive me.
That wasn't my intention.

You will produce good results on most
pedals after you work on it, I'm sure.

At the same time, I want to encourage
you to work on your pedals, finding the
comfort-zone for you and if you have
any questions about adjustments etc.,
I'd be glad to help.

I have helped a number of players find
better action from their pedals with simple
adjustments, as well as assisted in buying
the right pedal for them, in terms of cost
and return for the money.

Good luck. You'll do fine.

__________________
To Virgil,
A Drummer Who is Changing the World

peter

Treat your feet just like your hands.
One way to get things rolling is putting
your sticks on the snare and play a
double-stroke roll.

Whenever you first start out on this,
you have to start things slow. The same
applies down there.

One thing that I find very useful is playing
the RR on the kick and the LL on snare.
Repeat this until you have a real command
of it. Chances are, you can do this decently
already. Now, reverse the flow.

LL on the kick and RR on the snare. WORK
this. This is where I am going to start. It
worked on the right foot. It will work on the
left foot. Be patient.

The next step will be alternating your hands,
from one to the other, against the kicks.

You should then be ready to let the kicks run
on their own at this stage.

Of course, we'll have to incorporate them into
our beats and change where the strokes fall
but that's down the road.

Go for it. You can do it! He would tell you that!

__________________
To Virgil,
A Drummer Who is Changing the World

alencore

I learned how to play fast doubles on my right foot bec. of this TOTO song...AFRICA.
Earlier I could play fast doubles using the heel to foot approach but I need my own pedal just to do it.
I saw D.Weckl foot technique and wow, I gotta learn that.

But being in a band you have to learn songs first and Africa was driving me nuts due to that slightly slow tempo indian type of groove bass drum playing dotted 16th notes or samba like beat.
Then finally just playing the song over and over again that slide up technique came to form.
BOOM!!! One good morning I finally can play fast doubles and some fast samba beats without any custom pedals. I could go in at any club and jam away using whatever pedal are in place and apply the newly acquired technique.

The main point...
Practicing slow figures helps as what jolly good old Peter mentioned above. Especially if you practice in a grooving feel.

__________________
DT...oh plzzz!!! Wise up guys and get a true master of drums (pointing at VD hehe) while you still can!!!

peter

Sambas ARE very helpful, as are
most of the other ethnic grooves.

Don't forget the more recent hip-
hop patterns that are 'bastard-
shuffles'. Working on these tunes,
whether you dig the music or not
can build up kick chops.

If Virgil says anything, it's that the
kick is just another drum and as we
ghost with the snare, we should be
able to ghost with the kick.

As slow as you have to, make this
concept work. It will if you take the
time to do it. If I can do it heel-down,
you can certainly do it heel-up and
I'm a cripple!

Of course, I'm speaking as a single-
kick player BUT about to get my 2nd
pedal (can't wait). We're all in this
together. Let's make Virgil proud.

__________________
To Virgil,
A Drummer Who is Changing the World

morgenthaler

Start S....L....O....W....L....Y and make sure everything is excactly as you planned it! The first couple of months you might feel stuck in the same place... but suddenly you feel it one day... "Hey I didn't use to be able to do this?"
Have fun!

__________________
Jeppe Morgenthaler
Virgildonati.com Moderator

peter

This is one of the things I'm now doing
more of to develop my left-foot:

www.thediametrixletter.com/leftfoot-1.wmv
www.thediametrixletter.com/leftfoot2-1.wmv

Stuff like this will only help you double-stroke,
down the road.

__________________
To Virgil,
A Drummer Who is Changing the World

peter

OK, guys - don't laugh. This is my first time
at trying these Virgil doubles.

It's appropriately called:

www.thediametrixletter.com/dogpoops.mp3

Listening to jonberg inspired me to make an
initial attempt. See what you guys are doing
to a jazz drummer?!

Mind you, I am a heel down player but from
watching Virgil do these and trying them, at
least now, I can't see how else to do them.

I have to do it heel up, barefoot and with the
ball of my foot way down on the board; closing
my eyes and letting up on the 8th-note touch,
just a tad. It feels totally weird.

My left pedal is all messed up but I wanted try
it anyway so you can hear how BAD it sounds!

It IS dogpoops!

__________________
To Virgil,
A Drummer Who is Changing the World

peter

Here's today's droppings:

www.thediametrixletter.com/dogpoops2.mp3
www.thediametrixletter.com/dogpoops3.mp3
www.thediametrixletter.com/dogpoops4.mp3
www.thediametrixletter.com/dogpoops5.mp3
www.thediametrixletter.com/dogpoops6.mp3

I'm trying to feel for where the footboard responds
the best. It's real subtle.

__________________
To Virgil,
A Drummer Who is Changing the World

alencore

LOl. I can't help but laugh at the mp3's title. Poops away!!!

I just downloaded the first poop. Man, if you're a jazz drummer turning progressive fusion or whatever you're getting there. Your foot are getting pretty dexterous already. Yeah the left still sloppy it a little but you're way way way advance now compared to myself.

__________________
DT...oh plzzz!!! Wise up guys and get a true master of drums (pointing at VD hehe) while you still can!!!