Wfd type event..

Duck Tape

Duck Tape

Platinum Member
There's a regional fastest drummer competition being held just down the road from me in a few days.. I am not a fast guy but I do practice technique and decided I'd be a scaredy cat if I don't have a go.. I think there are some vouchers up for grabs, so why not?

One is single stroke rolls for a minute and the other is fastest double kick for a minute.

I have some idea but thought I'd better ask... What's the best approach for winning these two things?

I can't do heel and toe btw.
 
Dre25 said:
What's the best approach for winning these two things?
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Easy - being Derek Roddy or George Kollias ;-)
Dre25 said:
I can't do heel and toe btw.
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Ok, let's get serious. Probably you don't have to for this event as heel-toe might not be of any good for it. I participated in a double bass speed contest 1 year ago - that wasn't a 'pro' event, just a fun thing held at my local (rather, nearest - of those that I prefer) music store next to some more events/activities they had. There were some 15 contestants and I was the only one using heel-toe, plus I was the one to start. Problem: The triggering parameters were set so utterly dumb that a good deal of the hits I was actually producing weren't detected by the triggers so my result was rather bad (I had some 570 or so hits but should have been in the 900 region - and probably among the best 2-3 guys). Had I known this before - I'd have skipped heel-toe for this competition and simply did a full minute of singles instead.

Use singles!
(Can you imagine the dumbness you feel when you walk away from a contest like this as the only one using heel-toe...? Don't even try ;-))
 
Dre25 said:
There's a regional fastest drummer competition being held just down the road from me in a few days.. I am not a fast guy but I do practice technique and decided I'd be a scaredy cat if I don't have a go.. I think there are some vouchers up for grabs, so why not?

One is single stroke rolls for a minute and the other is fastest double kick for a minute.

I have some idea but thought I'd better ask... What's the best approach for winning these two things?

I can't do heel and toe btw.
Click to expand...

There was a WFD contest once at a drum festival I went to and I gave it a shot. Got around 870 hits and won, lol. (on hands that is)

I just used singles and switched between groups of 2 and 3 with some Moeller motion to prevent fatigue.

I've seen other guys do it with a metronome, but my advice would be to just play as fast and relaxed as possible and try to play a speed where you don't fall off too much towards the end of the 60 secs.
 
Arky said:
Use singles!
(Can you imagine the dumbness you feel when you walk away from a contest like this as the only one using heel-toe...? Don't even try ;-))
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Well, Tim Waterson did it that way, so I wouldn't let it worry me too much. Was your second hit not triggering consistently? 570 out of 900 is almost 1 in every three hits, I think a very high threshhold for the trigger could cause that.

Dre25 said:
There's a regional fastest drummer competition being held just down the road from me in a few days.. I am not a fast guy but I do practice technique and decided I'd be a scaredy cat if I don't have a go.. I think there are some vouchers up for grabs, so why not?

One is single stroke rolls for a minute and the other is fastest double kick for a minute.

I have some idea but thought I'd better ask... What's the best approach for winning these two things?

I can't do heel and toe btw.
Click to expand...


Don't sweat it. Play the fastest you can play Dre25 and if you win, you win. No point in looking for a gimmick to win something that is clearly just a drumming gimmick! :)
 
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Reggae_Mangle said:
Well, Tim Waterson did it that way, so I wouldn't let it worry me too much. Was your second hit not triggering consistently? 570 out of 900 is almost 1 in every three hits, I think a very high threshhold for the trigger could cause that.
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There was no testing beforehand - even no warm up, I was the only one who actually warmed up and did some stretching prior to the event. I expected the guys (from Mapex, BTW - it was a Mapex promo tour, with a Falcon double pedal as the first prize) to be more professional and to set the triggers so they would count all hits, not just those that were loud enough to get through the specific threshold. It's bitter to see that guys that even don't warm up and start slowing down after as early as 20 or 30 seconds still have a better result than me, and I've been practicing double bass like crazy. All this because of trigger settings... so what. It was a lesson for me.

WFD, now that's a pro contest so the staff involved knows how to set everything up. Plus, they already know that many/some drummers would use doubles so the triggering would hit _every_ stroke - that's the way it should be. Imagine Tim Waterson doing his run and the triggers won't count each stroke... fail, haha.
 
That's why I don't like heel toe, it's very pedal related and it's hard to get a consistent sound from it. Just not my cup of tea
 
I would like to learn doubles but I have 3 days, not 3 years to work with here.

I had a stuff around yesterday after practice and I held 170bpm (full strength singles) for a minute. I hope they have an anti-Arky trigger setup at this comp too, I might go alright.

Re: hands; I spoke to a guy who can do about 1100 and he said not to try practice a bmp but just use nervous tension/twitch muscles, and keep the rebound low. Also not to go all out in the beginning as everyone seems to crash and burn around the 45 second mark.

Anyway I don't expect to do well but it has sparked my interest in being able to play faster, as I kinda suck at it.
 
Arky said:
Imagine Tim Waterson doing his run and the triggers won't count each stroke... fail, haha.
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I agree, that would be a major fail. Actually surprised something like that could happen.

Grolubao said:
That's why I don't like heel toe, it's very pedal related and it's hard to get a consistent sound from it. Just not my cup of tea
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I wouldn't attempt to play anything major without using my own pedals and sticks. I agree, it's hard to get a consistent sound, but only if you don't persist with it. The second hit doesn't have to be much lighter than the first when you're playing heel-toe, just think of Moeller technique on the sticks. I like to use a bit of swivel for the heel part of the double stroke in order to get a bit more power.

Dre25 said:
Also not to go all out in the beginning as everyone seems to crash and burn around the 45 second mark.
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Yeah, being consistent throughout the 60 second contest is more important than a short burst of speed. It's actually a lot longer than it seems. Maybe do some endurance workouts with weights strapped to your ankles. That way you should be flying in the actual contest!
 
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