3 consecutive bass drum notes.

[jordanwood]

Hi.
this is my first post on the actual drummerworld forum but ive been visting this website for aslong as i have been drumming.

I've been playing for roughly around 2 years or so now, i have an electric kit here with me at uni and an acoustic back at home. i dont go out of my way to practice a specific amount of time a day i just play whenever i get the urge. i'd say i atleast spend 20 or so minutes a day on a drumkit even if its just playing along to 1 or 2 songs.

ok now for my problem.
my taste in music is sort of rock / indie and its what i tend to play the most bands such as billy talent, foo fighters etc etc. now alot of these bands tend to do this,

they will play 3 consecutive faily quick bass drum notes on 1 foot i.e. Billy Talent - Line and Sinker. Now i seem to have a huge problem in doing this either i play the first 2 and dont have enough power for that last note, or i end up playing 4 because my foot twitches etc. "I play heel up most of the time".

and i was just wondering if anyone could point in the direction of some good excercises that would help me be able to practice past this problem or point out another factor which i might need to improve on in order to be able to play these songs.

anyway, thankyou for taking the time to read this post all help / views are greatly appreciated.
regards
Jordan

[gusty]

Do you mean like, 3 16th notes after one another? but at medium/fast tempos that is quite hard to achieve.

[jordanwood]

id say the closest thing i can show you is

beats 4 and 5 on this website. http://www.drumlessons.net/bass-drum-independence/

[gusty]

For stuff like that, play it really slow (maybe, 50-60bpm) and get it perfect, and totally comfortable. Then just slowly bring up the speed. Spend a good amount of time on it.

[PinkZepplin]

learn the heal toe technique. if you can master that then you can play like 20 BD hits in a row with no problem.

[Tryitagain]

The best advice I ever got on playing 3 quick BD strokes was simple but beneficial (to me, anyway). Concentrate on accenting the 3rd stroke. Try playing the first 2 strokes flat footed, then lift the heel a bit and punch the 3rd stroke.

[PinkZepplin]

seriously though dude, you should start looking up all the heel-toe stroke threads on this site, there is a lot of good advice, and its a good skill to have. This will give you the speed and control to play the 3 stroke, and so much more. But if you just want advice on the strait up 3 stroke, i'd have to agree with Try it again in that you should be accenting the third stroke.

[zambizzi]

learn the heal toe technique. if you can master that then you can play like 20 BD hits in a row with no problem.

Oh yeah? Interesting. I'd like to see that!

The heel-toe does work very good, however. If you just drop your foot (relaxed) onto your pedal, rebound will give you 2 strokes for the effort of 1. At that point, simply lifting your foot and creating another stroke with the ball of your foot will give you a pretty fast triplet, when it's all combined.

Think of it as a Moeller for your foot...the first stroke generates all of the energy.

[jordanwood]

thanks for all the tips and advice thus far.
luckily i have 2 weeks away from uni so im back at home on my preferred acoustic kit.

so im gonna be hammering away trying all the stuff suggested, i slightly remember one of my drummer friends mentioning heel toe to me a while ago. i just didnt give it enough of a chance.

will keep you guys posted see if i have any breakthroughs!
wish me luck

[MattRitter]

Hi, Jordanwood

What you're talking about is sometimes called a "multiple stroke." I find that a good way to do it is to hold the leg up and play all strokes except the last one with the heel up (playing from the ankle). The last stroke would be made by dropping the whole leg down so that the heel lands on the heel plate (where your leg can rest until you need it again). You can hear me play various applications of this approach in the trailer for my DVD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs65csFDUHA

Everything in this trailer was done on a single pedal. I'm using the exact approach described above. Of course, for more info, you can check out the full DVD.

My advice to you is to really look at how you're playing SIMPLE rhythms on the bass drum. You've only been playing drums for 2 years, which is a very short time in the grand scheme of things. The grooves you're trying to play sound like they would give John Bonham a challenge (maybe not, but you understand my point)!

Before tackling such complex patterns, my advice is to strip things down to simple rhythms involving the core bass drum techniques- single strokes and double strokes. How are you with singles and doubles? After all, those are what make up 99% of the drum patterns you'll ever be asked to play. Are you able to do them consistently and cleanly? Are you clear on the exact foot and leg movements involved? Is the drum sound good? I've taught about 300 private drum students and only ONE of them came into my studio playing really great singles and doubles. He was a professional Broadway drummer. Prior to that, I gave 2 lessons to a household name drumming icon, and even HE was having some trouble with clean, relaxed singles and doubles. So, clearly, this is the place for all of us to start- singles and doubles. Then, when you're sure that you've got those in the bag, it's time to move onto multiple strokes and other complex things like that.

I hope some of this helps. Best of luck!

Matt Ritter
Bass Drum Techniques For Today's Drummer
www.UnBuryingTheBeater.com

[PinkZepplin]

Oh yeah? Interesting. I'd like to see that!

The heel-toe does work very good, however. If you just drop your foot (relaxed) onto your pedal, rebound will give you 2 strokes for the effort of 1. At that point, simply lifting your foot and creating another stroke with the ball of your foot will give you a pretty fast triplet, when it's all combined.

Think of it as a Moeller for your foot...the first stroke generates all of the energy.

If I had a video camera I'd record a video of it, but i don't so I'm just going to have to refer you to some of the heel-toe threads on this forum, ha sorry

[zambizzi]

I'll stump for Matt's DVD here - it's great...worth every penny!