Really easy double bass songs?

[Olli90]

So I started to learn playing double bass about two months ago and I am now at the point where I can play confortably at a speed of about 130 bpm. My question is, do you know some really easy double bass songs for beginners? The only one that comes to my mind is bloodline from slayer, but I want at least three songs to practice.

another question:

is it double bass or double base?

[iwearnohats]

Double bass, as in bass drum, bass guitar, etc. Not base as in 'Base of operations'.

Anyway, if you are stuck for songs, play along to ones around the tempo range you're looking for and improvise a bit :).

I for some reason can't think of any songs around that tempo with double bass parts, but that'll at least keep you occupied in the meantime :)

[joeysnare]

cowboys from hell - pantera, laid to rest - lamb of god

[iwearnohats]

Now that I've got home and looked at my playlist:

Dream Theater - Innocence Faded (about 120-ish, at a guess)
Symphony X - The Witching Hour (about 140bpm)
Symphony X - Fallen

To be honest, this is my 'drum along to' playlist and doesn't really have much around that tempo range - most of my double bass stuff is closer to 160-180, or 240+ (which I can't play yet :P)

Make sure you practise your double kick alternating between triplets, 16ths and 16th triplets to get used to the different feelings, practise hitting them hard, and get it all nice and solid. Because you're still at slower tempos, building endurance is the key at the moment, so make sure you supplement your music playing with say - 2 minute sets at slower speeds (100-120bpm) focusing purely on technique and high volume. This is something I unfortunately did not do when I was first getting into double bass and it took a few years for me to realise that my foundation was shaky before I corrected it.

[jfarrell]

revolution is my name - pantera

[Fox622003]

Originally Posted by iwearnohats

Double bass, as in bass drum, bass guitar, etc. Not base as in 'Base of operations'.

LOL.
Anyway, "Olli90" (and everyone else for that matter), I don't understand why you are limiting yourselves to making the practice of double bass just a straight succession of notes. I personally *never*practice just playing a straight subdivision; there's a lot of more itneresting things to do with a double pedal.


Fox.

[AtomicFlapjack]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUs1_OKQRwI

[iwearnohats]

Originally Posted by Fox622003

Anyway, "Olli90" (and everyone else for that matter), I don't understand why you are limiting yourselves to making the practice of double bass just a straight succession of notes. I personally *never*practice just playing a straight subdivision; there's a lot of more itneresting things to do with a double pedal.
Fox.

Yes, this is a VERY good point.

It's also a good idea to practise combinations between the hands and feet, not just doing 2 on the feet and whatever you want on the hands, but practise with 4, 6 and 8 on the feet as well. You might find that sloppiness shows up in different places ;).

And of course, once you're comfortable with that... 3, 5, 7 and 9 combinations between the hands and feet :P. 'Threes' are especially important, so work on the 'gallop' patterns 'RLR.LRL.RLR.LRL.' 'R.LRL.RLR.LRL.RL' 'RL.RLR.LRL.RLR.L' and '.RLR.LRL.RLR.LRL' and build from there. Well, I guess I shouldn't say 'especially important', as you should be proficient in all areas of double bass drum, but they're important to practise early on as the patterns will mess with your head more than you'd think, and nailing the gallop will make other patterns easier to absorb.

Also, a good example of a nice polyrhythmic bassdrum pattern is found in "The Eyes of Medusa" by Symphony X.

The bassdrum pattern in the verse is a 10 note pattern played as 16th notes in a 4/4 feel: 'RL.RLRLR.L'

[Fox622003]

Originally Posted by iwearnohats

Also, a good example of a nice polyrhythmic bassdrum pattern is found in "The Eyes of Medusa" by Symphony X.

The bassdrum pattern in the verse is a 10 note pattern played as 16th notes in a 4/4 feel: 'RL.RLRLR.L'

"Bleed" by Meshuggah also has a nice Herta (group of 3) going on with the feet that plays counterpoint to the main beat that's in 4. It's a really fun song to play, and while it's not too easy at max tempo, it can be played at much slower speeds and still makes for a great exercise.
.

Fox.

[schist]

Hypocrisy - "Eraser" (100BPM)
In Flames - "Colony" (105BPM)
Slayer - "Dead Skin Mask" (~110BPM)
Mudvayne - "Nothing To Gein" (~112BPM)
Anthrax - "Only" (112BPM)
Mudvayne - "IMN" (125BPM)
Morbid Angel - "Inquisition (Burn With Me)" (130BPM)

[schist]

Also, what you could do is play along to faster songs, but half-time the bass drum.

For instance, something like "Execration Text" by Nile (250BPM), but play 8th-notes with both feet instead of 16ths, which is equal to 16th-note double bass at 125BPM. (You might also wanna substitute the blast beats in the song with something else, if your hands aren't fast enough to blast at 250BPM).

Another option is to play along to songs which don't have double bass and add it in.

[Hewn]

Originally Posted by Olli90

So I started to learn playing double bass about two months ago and I am now at the point where I can play confortably at a speed of about 130 bpm. My question is, do you know some really easy double bass songs for beginners? The only one that comes to my mind is bloodline from slayer, but I want at least three songs to practice.

another question:

is it double bass or double base?

Try Eye of the Beholder from Metallica. It has some lengthy double bass beats throughout the song that are nice and slow, and also has some nice fast triplets aswell.