Need help with bass triplets!

[shan12]

Tried searching it in the forums but couldn't find anything. Ive played slightly under a year now but i still cant manage to pull off 3 fast straight beats on the bass drum. And by fast i mean like how the drum beat goes for Yellowcard's song, only one. I can do the heel toe fine but it just doesn't sound right when i pull off the third beat after i pull off the first two beats with the heel toe.

Can anyone please help me? Im sure alot of drummers out there will benefit from this thread too. It would be great if someone posted a video on some techniques or exercises that would help. Thanks alot!

[Legacyrik]

Can you do a triple stroke roll with your feet? Inverted? I've been starting to add some time to work on this a little. I focus mostly on my singles and doubles with my feet right now. It's slow going but it's working. I like working on them also. What's also nice is as you get more comfortable, you start adding things for your hands to do over top of it and you get a nice hand workout also.

[shan12]

I just got into drumming so i didn't understand half the things you said. Im playing a single pedal though. I hear triplets are easier to pull off using the slide technique and the swivel technique.

What other exercises could help me with straight triplets on the bass?

[sssssssss]

First of all, you should be aware that triplets don't mean 3 fast strokes, but rather 3 strokes instead of the normal 2 or 4 :D

Secondly, are you talking about a single pedal 3 stroke roll or a double pedal 3 stroke roll? Because if you're talking about a double bass thing, it's quite easy: you just do a double stroke with your leading foot and insert a beat with the other one, in between:D It's a good way to think about it when playing.
But, if you're talking about single pedal, well that gets a bit tricky. A nice technique that you might want to try is playing your heel-toe thing the way you do (you say that comes easy for you), and just come back for one final heel or toe, depending on which is the one you're starting on - heel or toe. I would actually do it toe-heel-toe, and would probably tend to accent the last toe (at least in the beggining), just to make it solid enough. The idea is not to abandon the technique you started with (heel-toe) for the last stroke.
Sincerely, it's not a technique that many professionals use (this 3-stroke roll on 1 foot) because it will at some point tense your leg. There's no need to force yourself, I'd suggest playing it with a double pedal, because hey - like Weckl says - it's all about the means to an end. And the end is good sound - a single foot 3-stroke roll won't probably sound as fat and solid as a double-foot one.
If you're thinking about what Jojo Mayer does, well...I think it's just what I explained a bit earlier: toe-heel-toe or heel-toe-heel. Note that "heel" doesn't really mean heel to Jojo Mayer...and for me either:))

[komodo]

While heel toe is great, i think you should definately practice more using a general ankle motion,especially as you haven't being playing that long. Dont worry about the bajilions of techniques, just practice the simplest motion for now. The one thing your gonna need is patience, as youll need to practice a lot to get single bass triplets up to speed. The best thing to do is work regularly with a metronome doing 3 beats per click (1-trip-let, 2-trip-let...). Do this daily starting slow and upping the tempo gradualy and im sure youll see results. It will take a hell of a long time to get up to the speed of say jojo mayer :D

[shan12]

Wow i didn't know it was possible to do toe - heel - toe. Thanks for all the tips. Again, is there any other exercises? So far ive been doing 3 stroke rolls on a single pedal at a very slow speed and moving up the tempo once i'm comfortable with it. Im playing heels up but im wondering if im supposed to use the toe of my foot to hit the pedal or am i supposed to use the ball of my foot?

Most of the songs im trying to learn incorporate 3 strokes and i think learning it will definitely open my kit up more.