heal down

ok, im gonna try and play just heal down, iv wanted to for along time but now im actually gonna kick my self to really pratice it. today, i could not even do a slow doouble hit on my bass drum without screwing up. the reason i think is because when i do heal up, i list my foot before hitting the bass drum, I lift my foot quite early infact, and healdown doesnt seem to work that way, i find i need to keep my foot on the pedal at all times, will i get used to this way of drummming pretty quickly?

You can get faster in the heal down position, but you'll never have the endurance. The calf muscle, and the tibialis muscle (just to the outside of the shin) that you use in the heal down position are much smaller muscles than the thigh muscles that you use in the heal up position.

Personally, I can see that there are times to use each technique. The trick is to figure out when to use which technique. Of course, other than the anatomy stuff, this is just my humble opinion, and I wouldn't take any offense if someone told me I was all wrong!

I know it can hurt a whole lot, iv heard some people even damaging there legs because the go past that burning sensation. but if you do it enough you can get it comforable at fast speeds, take travis from trivum for instance, he is a heal down player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIfhP8xleFE listen to that double bass, amazing. I dont think ull like the music, just admire the drums hehe, but i wont be to quick to judge :P, so your already getting comfortable playing heal up and heal down to different kinds of music?

I started by playing heal down, then I switched to heal up. I pretty much play heal up all the time now, but I can see that slower, more mellow songs could lend themselves to allowing heal down in places. I'm still a beginner, though, so I could be all wet on this.

i have a buddy who swears by heel down, and he's a total double bass kicker metal head---he says it gives him more power in his kick

but what do i know, i subscribe to the single kick rite now :)

Its like Ndugu Chancler said in a video on the internet, you cannot be a truly versatile and well-rounded drummer without mastering both. Thats what will give you most versatility.

Mostly, i play heel-down because i find it more relaxed and comfortable, afterall, the diffenence between playing relaxed and playing with tension is like the difference between rideing a bike uphill and rideing a bike downhill.

I really only play heel up when i fell that i need a bit of extra "punch".

Are we all on the same wave length about heel down? The reason I ask is that there are some that consider heel down as when your feet are pretty much flat on the pedal but still playing in a heel up action ( using the ball of your foot). "Heel down" in my drumming vocab is having your foot flat on the pedal and then pivoting from your ankle up and down (if that makes sense).

So now that I've cleared up my definition of "heel down", I am playing more heel up these days but I used to play heel down to develop strength. Drummers that play heel down say that they have more control then playing heel up. I think it just depends on what feels comfortable for you.

Laf, I think the little doubles on the single pedal that are frustrating you, I find are easier with heel up and the slide technique going up the pedal.

hey livewire, i looked at my feet yesterday and my whole foot was almsot flat with the pedal and i was doing that using heal up, and i thought wow this is so confortable, im doing what livewire does!! haha. so i do that too. i can do doubles on each feet, its just my timing when i do it heel down, i always screw up cuz i lift my foot off the pedal, are you not supposed to lift your foot off the pedal using heal-down?

Thats right Laf, "heel down" is your foot does not leave the peddle. Basically your foot rests on the pedal and you pivot your foot down ( from the ankle) to strike the beater while your heel is still fully resting on the pedal.

Anyway, thats what I learnt about the "heel down" method from my teacher so if I am wrong, so is he lol but I doubt it.

yea, sounds right to me, im getting better already. Im surpised how much speed you can get with heal down, I almsot did the fast doubles on the song "kashmier by led zep, which i could never do using heal up.

I alternate between the two, when I really want to accent something I feel I can get more volume by using heel up. This allows me to use the larger leg muscles, and apply more power. I find I have more control heel down, but I switch to heel up when I want to play really fast or really hard.

i think it helps because when I listen to music, I almsot always air drum, and when i do i use heal down everytime, iv never used heal up while air drumming, so my shin muscle, or w/e its called that hurts like crap when you use that muscle to long is pretty strong already.