The Heel Toe Thread

Re: how to do Heel toe for biger feet

Ok tiny question.

I've been practising alot on a stock Tama Swingstar pedal (just so you know what pedal I'm using) and I keep banging my heel on the heel plate. Help?

Also, when you're going down on the heel stroke, on a heel plated pedal lets say, which part of your foot actually makes contact with the pedal? THe ball of the foot or the entire surface of the foot?
And when going back up with the toe stroke, is it more like the up stroke when you play with the hands? as in leg moves up and the toe just taps the footboard.

I'm trying my best to understand this technique. Thanks for any input
 
Re: how to do Heel toe for biger feet

I have found that removing the toe-stop on my eliminator helps as I have fairly large feet.

Trouble is though I have not mastered heel toe so I prefer to work on it at home with my crappy old pedal and not waste rehearsal time by focusing on me and not playing as solid as I could!
 
Re: how to do Heel toe for biger feet

Awesome!

So is there any definitive word on the difference between heel/toe barefoot or with shoes? pros/cons of each?

What is the best way to practice the motion away from the drumset? I have a futz under my desk @ work and I have a long train commute from NJ to NYC where I can try to train my muscle memory.

What about flat foot?

Is there a difference in the motion between "heel-toe" "rocking motion" and "constant release"? or are they different words to explain the same technique?

Thanks so much for the video with the closeups. I know we are all getting a lot out of the videos you keep posting.

Howie
www.myspace.com/howietherockstar
 
Re: how to do Heel toe for biger feet

It doesn't matter what brand you use...I can do heel-toe on a Pearl P-100, a Gibraltar pedal that falls apart after playing about 5 minutes, and a Tama Iron Cobra. What I find that helps is to practice heel-toe with your foot approaching the pedal from the side. This way only the front half of your foot will be on the pedal.

Thanks for the video Tim. I've been confused about the concept of using the heel for a while now. Now I know that heel-toe and what I used to refer to as toe-ball are the exact same thing! It just got really confusing with different people's perspectives on the use of the heel. This video cleared everything up for me; however, I still think that heel-toe is a misleading name for the technique.
 
Re: how to do Heel toe for biger feet

I have size 8 feet. I've yet to see the video (slow connection) but i've been trying all sorts of pedal technique with my feet. Even with size 8, I really couldn't do the heel-toe technique where you actually hit the pedal with your heel. I dont think you do that. What I do is use my toes, then drop the cheek bone under my toe, toe, drop, toe, drop. I eventually got the drops to sound the same. And its not really tiring as compared with all toe playing.

With that, i have concluded that it doesnt really matter if you have a size 12 or 15.. maybe not size 20 or what pedal you use (I have gibraltar 5600).

hope this helps
 
Re: Videos of Heel toe bass method

jedrgy said:
Do those of you who have the video think its worth the 10 bucks?? http://www.heeltoetechnique.com/

OKAY COULD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME OUT ALL I HAVE BEEN SEEING IS THIS 10 DOLLAR THING BUT ALL I EVER SEE ON THE LINK IS A BASS SECRETS DRUM PACK FOR $50 COULD SOMEONE WRITE ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE EXPLAINING THIS PLEASE
 
Re: how to do Heel toe for biger feet

I've recently starting practicing this technique; I've been playing heel-up for >15 yrs.

I'm in agreement that the success of the technique has nothing to do with pedal manufacturer or foot size. I've got 11.5s with DW 9000 series (which seems like a smallish footboard), and the motion happens, even with my heel off the hinge-end of the footboard.

Hope this helps!

SRJ
 
Heel Toe success! (Partly...)

We'll I've finally gotten the heel toe technique to work (goddamit I never realised it was so ^%($*%*(@#$& SIMPLE!! Thank you Tim Waterson and Derrick Pope!!)

I'm getting very nice and smooth doubles using the heel toe method. It's awesomely quick, and very much more relaxed.

The small problem I have is with the constant release of it to create a constant flow of notes (like in Tim Waterson's big boot video..). I'm now forcing a lot of control on it to get spread out notes, but that's caused me to go so slow, tapping my feet normally is even faster than heel toe. I need some help on the constant release practice. (I'm using 1 pedal btw, so I really want to learn this instead of just doubles on the pedal)

How does the motion slow down and constantly go up and down at the same speed? I'm getting a little too used to banging my heel down and then immediately using the toe stroke to get quick doubles. So what next? Is it normal to do the constant releasing really really really slowly first? (Kind of like how I used the Gladstone for 1 handed rolls last time...)
 
Re: Heel Toe success! (Partly...)

hey what is the whole heel toe technique iv heard about? i'd really like to learn if it helps control and speed
 
Re: Heel Toe success! (Partly...)

tomodrum1 said:
hey what is the whole heel toe technique iv heard about? i'd really like to learn if it helps control and speed

there are tons of threads concerning this, and many videos as well.. use the search button
 
Re: Heel Toe success! (Partly...)

i got the heel toe technique in about 5 mins cheers
 
cool. i've been practicing steve smith's constant release heel toe technique for a month and i can keep 260 very even strokes with my right foot in a minute and can keep going nearly indefinitely. the technique feels better at higher speeds ...like my foot is floating over the pedal and because of the way the heel moves i feel very balanced on my throne with no leaning forwards or backwards.
as a discipline i am keeping my left foot playing every second note (130b/min) and once i am comfortable i am stuffing around with rudiments over the toms and snare. i am also trying the basic double bass beats but with one pedal and at these speeds (130ish). i am also trying dynamic patterns while keeping the beats with the right foot steady. all good at speeds between 120 and 135.

this is an excellent result. my target is to play 360 even dynamic strokes with the right per minute while doing complex other stuff with the other four limbs. when i get up there i'l post a vid for fun.

j

ps: in other words i highly recommend the constant release technique.
 
The spring tension on my double bass pedal is lower than the average drummer. I am very interested in learning the heel-toe technique. Do you think I should increase the spring tension?

By the way, if anyone wants to hear some crazy heel-toe used in a song, listen to "Blinded in Chains" by Avenged Sevenfold.

http://www.myspace.com/neverstop
 
i want someone to somehow firgure out the insane double bass move in "blinded in chains" by avenged sevenfold cz itsa been bugging me for month i could play the hole song but that one part and guitar and drum traner slows it down but its sounds all robotic and sloppy wen slow-mowed.. so if anyone could tab it out .. i could play heel toe like very very good been at it lil over a year
 
I dunno, maybe its just me but..

I believe the whole big feet makes heel toe hard thing to be just a myth.
I have size 14 feet and can do it without any problems at all.
Heres an older vid that I uploaded, can't really see much though, sorry.
http://media.putfile.com/Old-H-T-vid

I can do straight 16th's at a decent rate (although not quite as fast as Tim here).
Hardest aspect of heel toe I find, is getting a triplet down, 4 or more hits I dont really have a problem with.
I never really practice the technique though, so.

For pedals, it doesint matter what brand or model it is, mainly just how it is set up.

Never Stop! woohoo! said:
The spring tension on my double bass pedal is lower than the average drummer. I am very interested in learning the heel-toe technique. Do you think I should increase the spring tension?
In my opinion...
I would have to say a big no to increasing the tension.
 
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