Hi, I have been struggling with progress playing double bass, and think I need some help progressing.
I practice playing standard 16's notes and sextuplets and going into 1 foot triplets and 8ths and even jazz 8ths and recently started learning doubles with my feet going from RLRLx4 to RRLLx4 and back and forth also trying to add the RLLR pattern. I'll throw para-diddles in there as well. I am getting there just need more practice for sure. (never ends I don't think)
However when it comes to playing for instance, Bleed from meshugah, I can not keep the consistent RlR L pattern. I know the rhythm and I practice it often but I am not able to play it up to speed. It's been quite some time now since I've learned the herta's in 4/4 from the song, so I figured I could use some help/advice.
Here is the way I have been trying to practice. I play 3 bars of each, over 8th notes on the hats with accents on the downbeat and a snare on the 3.
1)R L R L 16's notes to get comfortable with the speed.
2) RlR L RlR L R L R L R L R L R L (where lower case==32nd) to make sure I'm still on time with the 32nds included.
3) Then repeating RlR L until I land back on 1 on the 4th bar and start back at 1).
Every now and then I will try to play the rhythm over 16th and 8th notes on the snare but that messes with my head pretty fast and I get frustrated...
I generally practice rudiments and new beats from slow to fast back to slow gradually without a metronome ( I do count them and focus on evenness of volume and time).
My main concerns is, when I stand up sometimes my hips will hurt like hell, or sometimes my knees. I can not play loud enough with my heel down on my left foot to compliment the style of drumming, so I play heel up for the most part (with both feet). Sometimes I feel out of balance which I think is do to having a weak core/lower back, which I am already working on. I'll stand on a curb waiting for whatever it is I'm waiting for a lot of times and balance on 1 foot with my heel hanging off and do calf raises. My calves are strong but maybe my thighs arn't, and that's what's the problem?
I have also read a few different threads on other sites of some people developing Osgood-Schlatter , as well as had a friend suffer from it growing up (my memory tells me it was after he started double bass, I only played single until the last few years though). I don't know if this is relevant though...?
Anyone have similar problems maybe? Any advice on how you tackled your problems with speed progression/pain would be appreciated, and anything else you thing might help. Thanks.
I practice playing standard 16's notes and sextuplets and going into 1 foot triplets and 8ths and even jazz 8ths and recently started learning doubles with my feet going from RLRLx4 to RRLLx4 and back and forth also trying to add the RLLR pattern. I'll throw para-diddles in there as well. I am getting there just need more practice for sure. (never ends I don't think)
However when it comes to playing for instance, Bleed from meshugah, I can not keep the consistent RlR L pattern. I know the rhythm and I practice it often but I am not able to play it up to speed. It's been quite some time now since I've learned the herta's in 4/4 from the song, so I figured I could use some help/advice.
Here is the way I have been trying to practice. I play 3 bars of each, over 8th notes on the hats with accents on the downbeat and a snare on the 3.
1)R L R L 16's notes to get comfortable with the speed.
2) RlR L RlR L R L R L R L R L R L (where lower case==32nd) to make sure I'm still on time with the 32nds included.
3) Then repeating RlR L until I land back on 1 on the 4th bar and start back at 1).
Every now and then I will try to play the rhythm over 16th and 8th notes on the snare but that messes with my head pretty fast and I get frustrated...
I generally practice rudiments and new beats from slow to fast back to slow gradually without a metronome ( I do count them and focus on evenness of volume and time).
My main concerns is, when I stand up sometimes my hips will hurt like hell, or sometimes my knees. I can not play loud enough with my heel down on my left foot to compliment the style of drumming, so I play heel up for the most part (with both feet). Sometimes I feel out of balance which I think is do to having a weak core/lower back, which I am already working on. I'll stand on a curb waiting for whatever it is I'm waiting for a lot of times and balance on 1 foot with my heel hanging off and do calf raises. My calves are strong but maybe my thighs arn't, and that's what's the problem?
I have also read a few different threads on other sites of some people developing Osgood-Schlatter , as well as had a friend suffer from it growing up (my memory tells me it was after he started double bass, I only played single until the last few years though). I don't know if this is relevant though...?
Anyone have similar problems maybe? Any advice on how you tackled your problems with speed progression/pain would be appreciated, and anything else you thing might help. Thanks.