How do you get an amazing foot like Tony?

[DrummerBen1]

Tony Williams had an amazing foot. Can anybody other me some tips?
Is paradiddles between the bass drum and hi-hat a good idea?


Thanks, Ben.

[Latin Groover]

Practice is the obvious answer but yea, do those things (that u said) ive just started doing these sorts of things too, just take a parradidlle play it between two limbs and then theres all sorts of things you can do.

Eg Parradidlle between bass drum and left foot, jazz ride with rh then get ted reed out and start sight reading the snare line for your LH (or just practice comping), this helps reading, inderpendence, and then theres all other things, like maybe play the parradiddle (which is now going to be PRD for short, cause its annoying to write) between BD and LH then play a clave with your left foot and even just 8th notes or even a real bell pattern from a groove, just take patterns and play them, split them up over a number of limbs think of any other sort of thing you would like to put with it. Just remember with the 1st eg swing the 8ths. I havent been reading my MDs for a while so im a few months back, i mean like july back. And there is a new artical with John Riley that hes doing, hi hat control, but the ideas are similar to what i just explained im mjust coming up with some of my own, and you can really use these ideas and its great for your limb inderpendence.

[vadrum]

everything said so far is great. you can also just practice your rudiments open to close to open between your feet and leave your hands out of the picture. you can adapt the stick control exercises using R as BD and L as hihat ( as far as the single sticking and flam exercises go). try all of the suggestions listed or focus on one at a time. just by working and focusing some practice time on developing your BD control, you will find that you will get better.

also, you may want to look at videos of tony (live in new york) and see if you can get a peek at the way he plays the bass drum (heel up or heel down). just experiment and have fun. use a metronome for your exercises and give yourself a test every once in a while to track your progress. try playing one measure of 16ths as fast as you can while still maintaining control and being relaxed (this would be like doing a sprint, you could also pick slower tempos and increase the number of measures that you play the 16ths, say 5-10 for example), mark that tempo. try developing your foot a bit and then after a couple of weeks do another test and see if the tempo has improved. if you see progress, then go back to work, if your progress was limited try a different approach to developing your bd control.

[Womble]

A novel idea would be to work out what it is you want to do with your right foot, and then practise it. Will you want to play paradiddles with your feet? If so, great, practise it. If it's some other pattern you've come up with that you want to nail, then practise that. These general exercises are all very well but people seem to rely on them to get them where they want rather than just practising what they specifically want to be able to play.

[vadrum]

A novel idea would be to work out what it is you want to do with your right foot, and then practise it. Will you want to play paradiddles with your feet? If so, great, practise it. If it's some other pattern you've come up with that you want to nail, then practise that. These general exercises are all very well but people seem to rely on them to get them where they want rather than just practising what they specifically want to be able to play.


no harm in this approach either. the primary question is do you have the general control or strength for the pattern. if the pattern is very difficult for you, you may want to omit notes to vary the pattern a bit and make it less challenging and then build yourself back up to the original pattern. there a many different ways to approach developing your control.

[theduke86]

My teacher knew Alan Dawson well, and he said that Tony worked through Stick Control with his feet. Good luck....

[DrummerBen1]

My teacher knew Alan Dawson well, and he said that Tony worked through Stick Control with his feet. Good luck....

how about ted reed's syncopation? would that work?

[Latin Groover]

YES, as long as you are playing with your feet they will improove.

[Pearlrules]

Uhh.. can somone fill me in on how Tony had an "amazing foot" exactly?.. All I know is that he's a damn good jazz drummer but what did he do with his feet?? I usually can't hear it.

Thanks...

[vadrum]

well, what tony are you listening to? the later tony you may not have heard anything that impressive w/ his feet. but going back and listening to early tony, say sam river's "fuschia swing song" for example, you can hear tony playing very fast singles between his bd and hihat (splash) w/ his feet under press rolls in his solos (and he was playing these phrases at a tempo that would rival anyones fast singles on a double pedal and, in pure tony fashion, everything sounded uber clean).

[xkevinx]

Tony did have amazing feet didn't he? Actually Tony had amazing everything. Listen to some early Tony when he was with Miles Davis. Pure musicality. He never overdoes anything. And once in a while he'll drop these great bass drum bombs that will bring tears to your eyes.