Me tryin' some (slightly) advanced stuff on my new bass pedal

[f4phantom2500]

I know it sucks, but by the time I started recording my foot was pretty worn anyway (I had already been trying to practice for like 15 minutes so...yeah), and I haven't practiced a lot of this fancy footwork stuff a lot to begin with. I did take a few minute break between the 2nd and 3rd one, but as you can hear I lose it probably about halfway through the 3rd.I couldn't do the jojo thing as fast as jojo, but I think I can get it if I practice more (haven't practiced this stuff in like two months, and even then I'd only practiced it a little). Obviously I'm not really doing anything specific, just trying different types of foot strokes and experimenting, while occasionally trying the Jojo thing.

http://www.files-hosting.com/431273
http://www.files-hosting.com/115681
http://www.files-hosting.com/233411

Well? Any comments? Suggestions? Questions? Anything?

 

[RelaxTheMind]

Indeed that was quite bad. bass pedal is your foundation. In my several years as an audio engineer I dont think I have heard worse.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
Indeed that was quite bad. bass pedal is your foundation. In my several years as an audio engineer I dont think I have heard worse.

Instead of telling me I sucked, which I already acknowledged, do you have any suggestions/recommendations that could help? Besides, I don't consider being able to play fancy things on the bass drum the foundation of drumming, that title is reserved to keeping time (again I know the timing sucked on that, but I wasn't going for a beat or anything really I was just experimenting with different techniques).

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
Indeed that was quite bad. bass pedal is your foundation. In my several years as an audio engineer I dont think I have heard worse.

I don't even know what a bass pedal is. I assure you I could do worse.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: BigJ
I don't even know what a bass pedal is. I assure you I could do worse.

You play it with your foot on a bass drum

http://www.gibraltarhardware.com/?fa=detail&mid=227&sid=76&cid=26

that's the one I have.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500

Originally posted by: BigJ
I don't even know what a bass pedal is. I assure you I could do worse.

You play it with your foot on a bass drum

http://www.gibraltarhardware.com/?fa=detail&mid=227&sid=76&cid=26

that's the one I have.

All I can say is be positive and keep on practicing. You gotta start somewhere.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: BigJ
All I can say is be positive and keep on practicing. You gotta start somewhere.

Well I can keep a steady beat on the kit, but in these samples I was pretty much just going for speed using advanced bass pedal techniques.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500

Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
Indeed that was quite bad. bass pedal is your foundation. In my several years as an audio engineer I dont think I have heard worse.

Instead of telling me I sucked, which I already acknowledged, do you have any suggestions/recommendations that could help? Besides, I don't consider being able to play fancy things on the bass drum the foundation of drumming, that title is reserved to keeping time (again I know the timing sucked on that, but I wasn't going for a beat or anything really I was just experimenting with different techniques).

my bad... by foundation I meant just that and this goes for most all genres of music. I've seen more people mess up solo/group simply from the offbeat of a bass drum.

If you wanted to jump start yourself

Start off with written sets and write down your unwritten ones... with a metronome conservatively at around say ~70 and work your way up.

Believe it or not your physicaly getting your foot toned to play. Also sounded like you were being a little too easy on it. You have less control if your too light on it.

The actual goal is to be able to use the pedal without even thinking about it. A lot like using the gas pedal in a car. I can almost hear you thinking about your foot.

Then again Im not a drummer.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500

Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
Indeed that was quite bad. bass pedal is your foundation. In my several years as an audio engineer I dont think I have heard worse.

Instead of telling me I sucked, which I already acknowledged, do you have any suggestions/recommendations that could help? Besides, I don't consider being able to play fancy things on the bass drum the foundation of drumming, that title is reserved to keeping time (again I know the timing sucked on that, but I wasn't going for a beat or anything really I was just experimenting with different techniques).

my bad... by foundation I meant just that and this goes for most all genres of music. I've seen more people mess up solo/group simply from the offbeat of a bass drum.

If you wanted to jump start yourself

Start off with written sets and write down your unwritten ones... with a metronome conservatively at around say ~70 and work your way up.

Believe it or not your physicaly getting your foot toned to play. Also sounded like you were being a little too easy on it. You have less control if your too light on it.

The actual goal is to be able to use the pedal without even thinking about it. A lot like using the gas pedal in a car. I can almost hear you thinking about your foot.

Then again Im not a drummer.

Well like I said I was only going for speed with different techniques; I am much more solid and consistent if I just play heel up. The way I was playing just kind of makes the pedal flutter on/off the head, so even though it's not a hard thud it hits a lot faster than if you played heel up. There's no way I could do a lot of that stuff heel up. Lemme try to explain some of the motions...

For the quads (the ones I was able to pull off), I do a heel stroke towards the back of the pedal, then a toe stroke at the front, pull back and do another toe stroke in the center and then go from there into a slide toward the front. For the rolls (for lack of a better term), I pretty much did a continuous release thing, heel-toe-heel-toe-heel-toe...you get the idea. For the triplets, same as the quads minus the last toe stroke. So if you think about it it makes sense because not only do I have to move my foot around for the next stroke faster, I'm also hitting near the back of the pedal more often where the force from my foot doesn't translate to the same amount of force from the beater to the head anyway.

This is one of the reasons I have to practice these techniques, the other being consistency.

Does that make sense?

 

[RelaxTheMind]

So wait, are you primarily using a single pedal? Playing fancy stuff heel up takes a lot more skill. Planted takes a lot more practice because your using more of your foot than your leg. All of which is why I think doing written sets. Much easier to do if you make sample on a keyboard (or any of the many sequencers on your pc) first and then practice it on the pedal. Its real EASY to lose a sweet beat and irritating as hell.

I would still use a metronome.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
So wait, are you primarily using a single pedal? Playing fancy stuff heel up takes a lot more skill. Planted takes a lot more practice because your using more of your foot than your leg. All of which is why I think doing written sets. Much easier to do if you make sample on a keyboard (or any of the many sequencers on your pc) first and then practice it on the pedal. Its real EASY to lose a sweet beat and irritating as hell.

I would still use a metronome.

I only used a single pedal. There's only so much you can do heel up, which is why I'm trying to work on a heel-toe/slide technique and continuous release (alternating heel stroke and toe stroke). You can't do what I was doing heel down (well maybe but it would be extremely impressive).