Best Foot/double bass DVD?

Bran

Junior Member
I'm looking to buy a dvd series that will help me train and work my feet and improve technique.
Much like a foot version of Jojo Mayer's "secret weapons."

Any ideas?
 
No, but Virgil Donati's book is really good. Comes with a CD if you can't figure out the notation.
 
Thomas Lang's Creative Coordination and Foot Technique has a lot of foot patterns to work on. However, he does not talk about how to use the pedal.
 
I'm thinking of either:

Jeff Bowders - Double Bass Drumming Workshop DVD

Or:

Ray Luzier Double Bass Drum Techniques DVD

Anyone know if they're any good/ which one is better?
Any other suggestions??
 
Matt Ritter's DVD is great to clean up your technique. But it is limited in the amount of techniques demonstrated (e.g. no swivel). Plus Matt provides but a few patterns because the focus of his tutorial is _not_ presenting patterns as this is so typical for most other tutorials. I do recommend his DVD though, it just has a different purpose than the standard tutorials on foot technique.

I also recommend Tim Waterson's "Techniques, Motions and Applications for Bass Drum Playing".
http://www.twothreeonetwomusic.com/

Now that one has (almost) every existing foot technique. (The only exception I know is an exotic technique when you're sitting way back and strike your pedals with the _heel only_, to produce single or double strokes. This technique seems to be used by very few drummers and I guess it's putting great stress on the heel. Ultimately just forget about that one.) There is so much stuff presented, learning just a fraction of it will keep you busy for a long time. Tim provides patterns, too, but not hundreds of them. But coming up with patterns is the next step, first the respective techniques have to be learned anyway, until one can play continuous 8th/16th notes with good evenness.

Tim provides the "what is there (and there's a lot)" (but also "how to do it"), Matt specifies on "how to do it cleanly", Thomas and Virgil show "the crazy stuff you can do with it (but go and figure out the technique yourself" (Virgil's tutorial starts easily but gets quite challenging.)

I'd also recommend the DVDs by Derek Roddy and George Kollias - they are in the extreme drumming context and there are lots of specific patterns (including footwork) demonstrated.
 
Matt Ritter's DVD is great to clean up your technique. But it is limited in the amount of techniques demonstrated (e.g. no swivel). Plus Matt provides but a few patterns because the focus of his tutorial is _not_ presenting patterns as this is so typical for most other tutorials. I do recommend his DVD though, it just has a different purpose than the standard tutorials on foot technique.

I also recommend Tim Waterson's "Techniques, Motions and Applications for Bass Drum Playing".
http://www.twothreeonetwomusic.com/

Now that one has (almost) every existing foot technique. (The only exception I know is an exotic technique when you're sitting way back and strike your pedals with the _heel only_, to produce single or double strokes. This technique seems to be used by very few drummers and I guess it's putting great stress on the heel. Ultimately just forget about that one.) There is so much stuff presented, learning just a fraction of it will keep you busy for a long time. Tim provides patterns, too, but not hundreds of them. But coming up with patterns is the next step, first the respective techniques have to be learned anyway, until one can play continuous 8th/16th notes with good evenness.

Tim provides the "what is there (and there's a lot)" (but also "how to do it"), Matt specifies on "how to do it cleanly", Thomas and Virgil show "the crazy stuff you can do with it (but go and figure out the technique yourself" (Virgil's tutorial starts easily but gets quite challenging.)

I'd also recommend the DVDs by Derek Roddy and George Kollias - they are in the extreme drumming context and there are lots of specific patterns (including footwork) demonstrated.
Thanks for giving us too many options damn you!! : )
Will have to check out the Derek and George ones at least.
 
haha, yeah, really! Thank you Arky!

Is Matt's and Tim's big on double bass pedal and train both feet evenly?
I almost bought a dvd until i learned it was only the right foot, which isn't what i'm looking for.
 
Is Matt's and Tim's big on double bass pedal and train both feet evenly?
Good point - I didn't mention that. Matt Ritter focuses on 1 foot - the technique is the same of course but I do see some sense (might be better for motivation) to demonstrate both feet/double bass action. And this is exactly what Tim Waterson does - he demonstrates a lot of double bass stuff. (Of course Matt has good double bass control but he decided to demonstrate all the technique related stuff with one foot only, mentioning that the same principles apply to the other foot.)

I'd recommend getting both DVDs though. They complement each other very well. You know, you could just get Tim's DVD for now and buy Matt's DVD at a later time. Thus, you could get acquainted with various techniques (or optimize what you can already do) and get more overall confidence and control on the double pedal and _then_ get Matt's DVD to pick up some good info on settings and how to clean up your foot technique. I think while it's great to have a clean start right from the beginning, learning technique does take some time so 'cleaning up later' (learning from Matt's DVD) might make some sense but start off with Tim's tutorial.
 
To be more specific, I'm an advanced drummer of 10 years, with a style similiar to Jojo Mayer.
What I need is a DVD that will help me to balance my feet, play cleanly, and use my new-found double bass chops freely.

Thank you!
 
Bran, that's great! Tim's DVD is still the best (and most shocking) overall DVD on double bass techniques. Unless you're a double bass monster already there will be tons of new stuff for you.

As for balancing your feet out - now this is an aspect which is discussed on Derek Roddy's (1st) DVD. But George Kollias has lots of great exercises for more foot control, too. (George prefers to focus on the right foot as the main foot and _not_ practicing one's weaker foot too much. Derek has a somewhat different approach.)
 
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