Playing bass drum with hi hats - terribly

[aboylikedave]

I have been happily playing for a couple of years (largely heel down on BD) but never worked the hihat much other than on the 2 and 4. Recently I have a) started to play heel up on BD and HH and b) practice the hi hat a lot more with a quarter pulse. And I am absolutely terrible at it, especially when hi hat and bass drum both play as I have no foot on the ground to support me so my bass drum strokes have that horrible double hit.

Now I am happy going right back to basics and playing very slowly to get it right but a question , especially to some of you who are teachers - is it me or is this something that some students find particulalry hard? I know different people are good at different things but this has come as a bit of a suprise that of all the drumming skills it really is the one I've ever been worst at!!!

[NUTHA JASON]

this is because the foot hat is so soft and not a huge part of the drums sound in a lot of beats except jazz where it is crucial.

four suggestions

try playing some of your favourite beats with your right arm literally tucked into your belt. so that its job must be replaced by the hihat with the foot. simple beats at easy tempos at first.

and

i got quite a lot of facility with my left foot by purchasing one of those hat mounted tamborines (a la bonham) and then finding al sorts of ways to use it in beats against or with the ride

play the hat on the 2 and 4 but then also go for the 1 and 3.

also try learning gadd's foot splashing technique (using the heel) and learn it as an automatic ostinato as you would a bass samba.

[aboylikedave]

Cheers Jason. Thinking about it the problem is really about my recent use of a more heel up hi hat approach. I didn't realise how much support the HH foot provides to the BD foot, if you see what I mean. Perhapos this affects Double Bass players?

[Eric]

I spent much of my drumming life playing heel down bass drum, then tried to learn heel up, so I know what you're going through. Now I can go back and forth between heel up and down, and believe me, it's totally worth it to be able to play both ways. I have a couple ideas;
First, you're probably dealing with balance issues. Playing heel down allows one to lean forward and put weight on your feet. That weight will now need to be transferred to the throne. Lean back a little and sit up straight. You may need to bring some of your drums closer to you (but NOT the bass drum). Don't be surprised if this feels wierd for a while.
Second, start of simply. Try playing nothing at all on the HH, but keeping it closed while keeping your heel up. This will get you used to the feeling and you can just focus on heel up BD playing without getting frustrated. Later you can start practicing grooves while playing constant quarters or eighths on the HH with your foot. The key here is to practice many different tempos with a metronome. Some tempos will feel natural, some so damn hard you'll want to kill yourself. This is normal. Be patient, it's worth the effort.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Think with your butt!!!!! :-)
You should have a solid balance point in your ass to be able to move freely. Heels don't provide any balance anymore when you play heels up.

[tsortoreyamaha]

as for balance..i dont see how u can't sit there without your legs, but i would play heel down on your hi hat pedal because when you open the hats you wont get a good crisp open like you would heel down.

[mr_hayward_99]

practice not only playing quater note pulse but try off beat quater notes

and 8th notes and off beat eighths

[bballdrummer34]

Practice (diligently) Stick Control by Stone between the hi hat and bass drum. Also, check out how Tony Williams plays the quarter note pulse.

[fazzybOO`]

You don't need to practice anything. If you're getting a "double hit", you need to

-Put pressure on the pedal by leaning forward while drumming, which isn't needed heel-down.
-Put your foot up higher up on the pedal.

[Wavelength]

You don't need to practice anything. If you're getting a "double hit", you need to

-Put pressure on the pedal by leaning forward while drumming, which isn't needed heel-down.
-Put your foot up higher up on the pedal.

...or, if you want your bass drum to actually sound good, put your towards the back of the pedal board and let the beater rebound off the head by relaxing your foot after the initial stroke.

[jazzsnob]

...or, if you want your bass drum to actually sound good, put your towards the back of the pedal board and let the beater rebound off the head by relaxing your foot after the initial stroke.

Maybe he's talking about using your hi-hat? It would make at least a little bit more sense.

[Wile E. Coyote]

...or, if you want your bass drum to actually sound good, put your towards the back of the pedal board and let the beater rebound off the head by relaxing your foot after the initial stroke.

Maybe that "good" means "to my taste". Some of us like dry dampened sound sometimes.

[dea]

I'm not a teacher, but I have experimented with which approach is better ( heel-up, and heel-down ). I have come to the conclusion that are important and should be used in conjunction with each other. Here is something crazy that I do to help with my balance...

Don't try and force yourself to play heel-up only, or heel-down only. Your better off basing yourself with heel-down and using heel-up as a tool to provide a more dynamic range.

One thing I do that helps with the balance is that when some dynamic change is needed with my hat, I will drop my heel on the bass pedal ( if I'm not already doing a steady low speed pulse ), to support my hat. Works in the other direction as well. After a while, you feet just become accustomed to supporting each other and alternating. I think you'd be surprised as to the unique bass drum + hat coloring you can acquire.

Give it a whirl. Remember, when the hat-heel goes up, the bass-heel goes down. I try never to have both feet in the heel-up configuration at any time - unless its absolutely needed - and there may be times when it is, but they are usually short lived and your balance can quickly be restored when one of the heels come down again.

Good luck!

[finnhiggins]

This might help:

http://www.drumlessons.co.nz/online-lessons/technique/bass-drum-foot-leg-technique.html