I'd like to find some exercises for beginning double drum-bass.
Do you have any links to suggest?
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2Do you mean a kit with 2 bass-drums, or one of those double-mallet kicks? Or that enormous drum from the Sousa band? (Tell a little story of where you've already looked for this info and what misadventures befell you.)– luser droogJan 1, 2012 at 22:31
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I have a Roland TD-7 with two bass drums, but it doesn't matter if it's two bass drums or one bass drum with two mallets, the exercices should be pretty much the same.– PetruzaJan 2, 2012 at 0:09
4 Answers
There are lots of exercises that you can do to improve your foot technique. Tiger Bill's website has lots of good exercises that you can try if you're looking to improve on double bass technique: http://www.tigerbill.com/drumlessons/buildyourdoublebassdrumchops_part1.htm
One of the best practice exercises I've found is to practice what I'm doing with my hands using my feet. So say for example you're practicing paradiddles with your hands. Play a couple bars doing paradiddles with your hands while playing alternating strokes with your feet, and then switch and do the paradiddles with your feet and the alternating strokes up top. So essentially, something like this:
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a H: R L R R | L R L L | R L R R | L R L L | R L R L | R L R L | R L R L | R L R L F: R L R L | R L R L | R L R L | R L R L | R L R R | L R L L | R L R R | L R L L
If you're not used to playing multiple patterns at the same time between your hands and your feet, this can be a really challenging exercise! Do this with any pattern you can imagine and you'll have loads of exercises to play around with. Another thing to try which is surprisingly difficult is leading everything with your left foot. Try starting the pattern above with the left foot instead of the right (if you're a right-handed/footed player). It feels totally different, and is an area really worth exploring. It really opens up a lot of possibilities that aren't there when you lead with your right. Having the ability to play the hi-hat on the beat with the kick drum opens up a lot of avenues for neat splashes and ways to sub-divide time.
As Eimantas said, definitely practice with a metronome. If you're just trying to blaze through chops, having a metronome handy is vital. I can't tell you the number of times I thought I was solid on some patterns only to find out that my time fluctuates terribly when I sit down with the metronome. Don't get too caught up in timing though... you don't want to ruin the natural feel of the music!
I hope this helped a little bit on your quest to find some good exercises. Have fun!
Basically, whatever goes for your leading foot, should go for the other.
We're talking about technique, control, building up muscles but also balance. With only one kick drum, you get a lot of support from your other foot usually resting on the floor. With double bass drumming, if we're talking about anything faster or more complicated, both of your feet/legs are in action. This affects your balance. Balance is a very important thing here, yet often overlooked.
Learn the basics. Play the usual things just leading with the left foot. Then depending on what you want to learn, look for exercises. Few good places to start with:
- Virgil Donati: Double Bass Freedom (book)
- Colin Bailey: Bass Drum Control (book)
- George Kollias: 16 week speed & control exercise (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
- Derek Roddy: Endurance exercise (YouTube)
- Derek Roddy: Weak Foot Buster (YouTube)
Just remember, it's all about what you want to achieve, but one of the main things is that you're only as strong as your weaker side. Whatever goes for the right foot, goes for the left.
From my experience, best exercise is just sit down, concentrate, turn on the metronome (or the song, no matter what you prefer) and start practising, firstly get comfortable with normal tempos like 16th notes on 80-90 BPM and the move up, this takes time to build regular feet speed and consistency. After that you can play paradiddles with your feet as you do with your hands, to improve your doubles and so on, continiue on playing triplets and so on to master all this stuff. Theres no secret technique in double bass playinh
I think you should search for methods like this Joe Franco Double Bass. It's a good way to pratice !!