my legs simply cant!

ecpietscheck

Senior Member
hi you guys!
i have bad news :(
5 months from no i only played my electronic drumset with a dw 9000 pedals heels down, that made me lose all my muscles
now that im recovering my progress on an acoustic drumset, i struggle to play both heels down and up :(
any advices: running, pedal configuration etc?
thankyou guys!
 
i dont understand what the difference is? just set the pedal up the same way and it should be the same, i have an acoustic kit and an E-kit and as long as the pedal is set up the same i cant tell a difference?

what is exactly the problem? like what happens when you try to play?
 
What you are experiencing is the difference in FEEL between the e-kit and the acoustic kit.
Your feeling will return after a short while.
It's only temporary.
 
Nope. Just get back on the horse and start over again. Build up those drumming muscles again. It will take some time.

When you play your electronic kit again, just play how you would play your acoustic...there is really no use changing the way you play your pedals.

It doesn't sound like you have been playing very long. I'm not saying that as a bad thing, but there really shouldn't be a HUGE adjustment from electronic to acoustic. Your feet should kind of just DO IT.

I understand there is a different feeling from playing an electric and acoustic. The acoustic will have a more "pillow-y" feeling (depending how it's tuned). Your going to have to practice to get the right "touch" back. Muscle through it and put in the time.
 
thankyou for your answers guys!
will really i havent been playing for the longtime as you said vinniewannabe!
ive been playing forlike 4 years now
the main problem is that i first played heels up with a hard-configurated 7000 pedal. then i bought myself an e-kit along with an 9000 pedal and i started playing heels down for like 1-2 without going back to my acoustic drumset. that made me lose all my muscles.
im not an entrepeneur drummer in any way, but im not bad in either way. but anyways, thankyou for your answers guys!
 
Try practising the "Immigrant Song" from John Bonham/Led Zeppelin, I bet you will gain some endurance and strength in your legs.
 
this is weird. i have both and acoustic and an electronic kit and i go back and forth between them all the time without any trouble. i use a tama iron cobra double pedal. the only thing i can think of is maybe on the electronic kit you might have the relative volume of the bass drum trigger set too high or too low. i had to reduce the volume of my bass trigger on my e-kit because it was too easy to get a loud sound from it. i found that when i went to the acoustic kit i wasn't playing the (real) bass drum loud enough because i had gotten lazy on the electronic kit.
 
I stopped using my kick practice pad because it ruined my foot technique for acoustic drums due to a very different rebound. As vinniewannabe said, you'll have to work your way back up to your old capabilities.
 
I feel your pain, my friend. I actually logged on here to ask a similar question. I studied abroad in Germany for a year without playing drums, and when I returned, my technique was bad, but not unrecoverable. Interestingly enough, it's gotten progressively worse the more I've played. I know a lot of this is in my head, but I also know that I've trained myself to do something wrong. It's unbelievably difficult to try to tell your leg muscles to do something different. My technique is so bad now, that my left foot (which I never use for playing kick drum) is considerably better than my right. Now I can't even play the simplest of beats, when previously I could play fairly technical kick rhythms without even thinking about it. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong!
 
I feel your pain, my friend. I actually logged on here to ask a similar question. I studied abroad in Germany for a year without playing drums, and when I returned, my technique was bad, but not unrecoverable. Interestingly enough, it's gotten progressively worse the more I've played. I know a lot of this is in my head, but I also know that I've trained myself to do something wrong. It's unbelievably difficult to try to tell your leg muscles to do something different. My technique is so bad now, that my left foot (which I never use for playing kick drum) is considerably better than my right. Now I can't even play the simplest of beats, when previously I could play fairly technical kick rhythms without even thinking about it. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong!
I think you should start re-teaching your foot very, very slowly. Set up the metronome at 60 bpm or less and start playing the basic beat - kick on one and three, snare on two and four. Concentrate on staying relaxed and in control. Then slowly start expanding the kick patter, adding notes on the "ands" and once those are solid, on the "e's" and "a's". Then up the tempo a bit, rinse and repeat. With some luck, you won't need to relearn absolutely everything from scratch, and your foot will get back on track once you unlearn the bad technique.

I believe it will help to do this both heel-down and heel-up, no matter what your peffered technique actually is.
 
I think you should start re-teaching your foot very, very slowly. Set up the metronome at 60 bpm or less and start playing the basic beat - kick on one and three, snare on two and four. Concentrate on staying relaxed and in control. Then slowly start expanding the kick patter, adding notes on the "ands" and once those are solid, on the "e's" and "a's". Then up the tempo a bit, rinse and repeat. With some luck, you won't need to relearn absolutely everything from scratch, and your foot will get back on track once you unlearn the bad technique.

I believe it will help to do this both heel-down and heel-up, no matter what your peffered technique actually is.

Thanks for the advice! I will definitely try that out.
 
Re: my legs simply cant! Another drummer heard from

I was going to start a thread when I saw this one. Here is my situation. I've played off and on for 40 years. I had a layoff of 5 years due to two back surgeries. I started playing again, and I'm actually in a band right now. I've been playing heel up. But I was looking on lessons over at the Vic Firth site and the instructor explained how much more control and less stress you have with heel down. I've been trying this week, but it actually hurts. I poop out much quicker than if heel up and there is tension on the calf & thigh muscles. Is there a mechanical element as far as the geometry of the pedal and the angle of your leg that makes this easier or worse? I too have been trying this on my E-kit. I'll be trying it tonight on my Acoustic.
Thanks, Spiney
 
Re: my legs simply cant! Another drummer heard from

But I was looking on lessons over at the Vic Firth site and the instructor explained how much more control and less stress you have with heel down. I've been trying this week, but it actually hurts. I poop out much quicker than if heel up and there is tension on the calf & thigh muscles. Is there a mechanical element as far as the geometry of the pedal and the angle of your leg that makes this easier or worse? I too have been trying this on my E-kit. I'll be trying it tonight on my Acoustic.
Thanks, Spiney
Heel down is not necessarily less stressful for the foot and leg, especially if you need more power from the kick. It is possible to play heel up very relaxed and controlled. Hundreds of pro's wouldn't use it otherwise.

The mechanics of heel-down are quite different to heel-up. There is a lot less weight behind the strokes to add power, and it's much harder to keep the beater buried if that's what you're used to. Controlling beater rebound and upstroke is of great importance too.

I think you should keep playing heel-up with the band for now; if you really want to learn heel-down work on it when practicing alone until you get the hang of it. Start slow and focus on staying relaxed and getting used to the different feel and mechanics.
 
spiney,
its been really funny to read your comment actually!
because the same thing is happening to me vice versa
i dominate heel down technique, BUT I STRUGGLE TO PLAY HEEL UP
why do i want to start playing heel up again? because it has a more powerful sound when practicing with your band
lots of persons have told me my drumming is quite good but i need to turn up the power of my kick
now that i want to play heel up, i simply cant
i guess ill just stay with the heel down technique because it stresses me not to do a consistent heel up technique...
 
spiney,
BUT I STRUGGLE TO PLAY HEEL UP
why do i want to start playing heel up again? because it has a more powerful sound when practicing with your band
lots of persons have told me my drumming is quite good but i need to turn up the power of my kick

You can always mic your kick and turn it up for performances. I tried heel down tonight at practice and just couldn't do it. i'm going to work on it at home. I can do heel down on the HH no problem, but not the BD, I need to stretch the Calf Tendon in order to have my foot rest comfortably heel down on the BD pedal. Spiney
 
greatly appreciated!
i was anyways decidered to always play heels down
well man should do this:
start practicing like if you were double pedaling in the floor all days
and that will certainly help!
i started to play heels down on my e-drums :D
 
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