RIGHT FOOT BASS DRUM- How to obtain proper enduance and speed

[DWDrummer]

I have been practicing out of the NEW BREED book by Gary Chester for a while now. I'm pretty deep in the book, and from trial and error I have realized that the most important thing in the book and any independence book is the bass drum. If you have good speed on the bass drum, you will have the potential to obtain great independence. However, I have really not been successful with obtaining endurance and bass drum speed from this book.

I start slow and go through one page with the heel down, then go back and play the same page with the heel up. I then increase the speed on the met by 5 bpms and repeat the process. I can only max out on the met around 75/80 BPM. I feel that my bass drum speed is holding me back from playing the exrcies faster. Does anyone have any advice for me? Should I play the exercises longer on the same tempo? Thanks.

[Bobr]

Hi, just make yourself relax. If you ´ll do the same thing long time, your body won´t be able to increase the speed when you´ll be on "your point" - which is the speed you can´t go over. just let your legs relax some time and then go thrugh it again, and you´ll realize it´ll help you. Maybe there´s some problem with technique, too, but that´s the thing you must know.
Hope you´ll undestand :-)

[jonescrusher]

Well, what page of melodies are you getting stuck on? Maxing at 80 bpm on the first page is different from maxing at 80 bpm on the last page of advanced reading. What ostinato are you working with?

You may well get stuck at a certain tempo for days or weeks, keep at it, and eventually you'll start to move up. It's important that you're sure you're totally rhythmically correct on the melodies ie. every subdivision is falling exactly where it should be in relation to the ostinato. If you're not sure work through it with a teacher.

[aboylikedave]

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I might have a similar problem: I can do 16ths at 70bpm with absolutely no 'burn' for 5 mins solid (that's various 16th patterns). But if I try to go to 75 they start to go out of time and I start doing odd twitches with my foot. What's that all about?! Does it imply its a technique rather than a musle issue? BTW I'm much faster and precise playing heel down.

[Casper "DrPowerStroke" Paludan]

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I might have a similar problem: I can do 16ths at 70bpm with absolutely no 'burn' for 5 mins solid (that's various 16th patterns). But if I try to go to 75 they start to go out of time and I start doing odd twitches with my foot. What's that all about?! Does it imply its a technique rather than a musle issue? BTW I'm much faster and precise playing heel down.

5 BPM is a rather big jump if you are near your limit. I use a digital metronome, and for some exercises I use 1 BPM increments, to sort of creep up on the limit. Don't be discouraged. Speed isn't everything after all. Just be proud of whatever speed you manage to play at. DPS

[Bobr]

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I might have a similar problem: I can do 16ths at 70bpm with absolutely no 'burn' for 5 mins solid (that's various 16th patterns). But if I try to go to 75 they start to go out of time and I start doing odd twitches with my foot. What's that all about?! Does it imply its a technique rather than a musle issue? BTW I'm much faster and precise playing heel down.

the technique can be the problem, but if you have a good teacher, I think the main problem could be the muscle speed. It´s basicly the same thing as, for example, bodybuilding - you know, you´re getting more and more and once it stops and cannot continue. The only difference is, that you´re not gonna be strong, but fast.

[MattRitter]

Hi,

In my experience, building up bass drum speed is usually not a matter of slowly developing the muscle strength, etc. Usually, it's about using proper technique. If you practice hours per day, but practice an inefficient movement, you will likely never get very fast. On the other hand, if you learn the right movement, you can dramatically increase your speed instantly. I noticed that you said you "max out" at about 70 or 80 bpm, right? I am assuming that is the quarter note, and your foot is playing 16th notes. Well, that is the same as putting the metronome at 140 or 160 bpm and playing 8th notes. Interestingly, that is the EXACT speed range where I max out when I play from my leg. Then I switch to an ankle movement, and I can keep going. On a good day, with pure ankle movement, I can play 8th notes at 250 bpm or faster (in short bursts). So, I will go out on a limb here and guess that you are using a leg motion for the heel up stuff. When you max out at 70 or 80 bpm, switch to a pure ankle movement...and let the beater rebound off the drumhead! The bounce of the beater can help you. Imagine trying to play fast with your hands if you were ramming the stick into the snare drum head with no rebound!

Best of luck,

Matt Ritter
Writer and Producer of
Bass Drum Techniques For Today's Drummer:
Unburying The Beater

www.UnBuryingTheBeater.com

[jiltednut]

Hi,

In my experience, building up bass drum speed is usually not a matter of slowly developing the muscle strength, etc. Usually, it's about using proper technique. If you practice hours per day, but practice an inefficient movement, you will likely never get very fast. On the other hand, if you learn the right movement, you can dramatically increase your speed instantly. I noticed that you said you "max out" at about 70 or 80 bpm, right? I am assuming that is the quarter note, and your foot is playing 16th notes. Well, that is the same as putting the metronome at 140 or 160 bpm and playing 8th notes. Interestingly, that is the EXACT speed range where I max out when I play from my leg. Then I switch to an ankle movement, and I can keep going. On a good day, with pure ankle movement, I can play 8th notes at 250 bpm or faster (in short bursts). So, I will go out on a limb here and guess that you are using a leg motion for the heel up stuff. When you max out at 70 or 80 bpm, switch to a pure ankle movement...and let the beater rebound off the drumhead! The bounce of the beater can help you. Imagine trying to play fast with your hands if you were ramming the stick into the snare drum head with no rebound!

Best of luck,

Matt Ritter
Writer and Producer of
Bass Drum Techniques For Today's Drummer:
Unburying The Beater

www.UnBuryingTheBeater.com

Unburying the beater is an awesome DVD and I'd recommend it to anyone, trust me this guy knows what he's talking about, sick right foot!!!

[DWDrummer]

Well, what page of melodies are you getting stuck on? Maxing at 80 bpm on the first page is different from maxing at 80 bpm on the last page of advanced reading. What ostinato are you working with?

You may well get stuck at a certain tempo for days or weeks, keep at it, and eventually you'll start to move up. It's important that you're sure you're totally rhythmically correct on the melodies ie. every subdivision is falling exactly where it should be in relation to the ostinato. If you're not sure work through it with a teacher.

I am currently playing exercices 1a and 2a out of the "advanced systems". I am playing those ostinato beats with the advanced reading pages (1-10). I think my big problem is that I need to play the individual exercises more, and I need to play each tempo mark more until it feels easy/good. I am currently playing each individual exercies 4 times each (as Gary recommends). I'm going to try to play each one 16-20 times.

Thank you everyone for your help.

[jonescrusher]

I am currently playing exercices 1a and 2a out of the "advanced systems". I am playing those ostinato beats with the advanced reading pages (1-10). I think my big problem is that I need to play the individual exercises more, and I need to play each tempo mark more until it feels easy/good. I am currently playing each individual exercies 4 times each (as Gary recommends). I'm going to try to play each one 16-20 times.

Thank you everyone for your help.


You'd be best choosing one ostinato, from whatever set, and sticking to that for however long it takes to get it down as accurately as possible. Also, try repeating each exercise however many times it takes to get down accurately, if that means 100 repeats then do so. New Breed is intended to be gruelling, hard work, so divide it up with fun stuff.

[whoback]

If you wanna get your right foot chops up here is an excellent exercise:

What you need: 1 metronome, 1 copy of Syncopation

To start set your metronome at quarter = 60. Then, while keeping quarters on the HH, play through "Lessons" 4 - 11. Use the heel down technique and let the beater rebound freely from the head. Should take you about 30 minutes to complete.

Do this everyday for a week @ 60 and then you can bump up the tempo to 64. So on and so forth until you get to your desired tempo.

Rock.

- Will