Double bass beginner tips

[mepbuzz]

I've always been a single pedal kind of drummer, but always wanted to get one of those Sleishman pedals since I saw them. This weekend I found a sweet deal on a demo model of the sleishman twin pedals, so I did what I had to do.

Before harassing the band with my new toy I set up a practice configuration at home:



Now onto the main reason for this thread:

When practicing I feel my torso being forced backwards. This is playing heels up, which I'm accustomed to using a single pedal. When playing heels down I'm having little problems with my posture.

Is playing double bass a heels down kind of thing by default, or is there anything I can try that might help me play comfortably heels up.

I have been playing around a bit with my seat height and rotating my pelvis, but I'm not sure either is the way to go.



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[mepbuzz]

Did some more last night and moving to the very front of my throne seems to be the way forward.

[Ricardo]

Did some more last night and moving to the very front of my throne seems to be the way forward.

I've been playing double-bass set-ups for a long time and sitting on the front half of the throne and playing heels up is the only way I know..........BALANCE !

[longgun]

Majority of the time I play heels down...unless I need volume or accents, then it's heels up. Done that since I was a kid, always felt like I had better control

[marko138]

I play heel up exclusively. Sit in the middle of my RnS throne. No issues.

[Russ]

One thing to remember about double bass, and I think this applies to whatever footing you use to play - is POSTURE COUNTS. Keeping a straight back can be difficult but ultimately becomes a huge tool to your success. A straight back allows for balance of your body both upper and lower limbs alike, you can stay centered and not have to reach as far if you're leaning back, and you can play a lot longer since you won't have back pains. Regarding the footing you use, I like heel up but heel down works too. I just don't feel the same amount of control for heel down, but to each their own.

[mepbuzz]

Just did half an hour of rudiments, alternating hands, heels down and heels up. Concentrating on the rudiments instead of posture helped. Only when i started strugling with speed did i start to feel uncomfortale.

Enjoying this double bass thing very much right now lots of room for improvement, but that makes the exercises just more worthwhile!

[Russ]

Do you have any instructional dvd's or video clips at your disposal you can watch during practice?

[mepbuzz]

I have spotted some online vids and tabs that i'm going to work on.

[xweasel]

Keep a straight back like Russ said, also what I do is I lean forward very slightly when I'm double kicking.

[mepbuzz]

Time for a bit of an update.

As posture goes, once I actually started playing on the whole kit instead of concentrating on the feet there was no discomfort to speak of, apart from me banging the rim of the snare with my fingers a few times because of the new position of the snare

I'm incorporating small double-bass things into the songs we do with the band and am working on rudiments to get my left leg up to speed, or more accurately to get en equal feel to both legs

--- rocking on ---

[Drumbledore]

Like Russ mentioned, good posture is very important. Practice both heels up and heels down. What I sometimes do just to warm the left foot up a bit is to say take a very simple rhythm, say playing the right foot on "1" & "3", with the left hand playing the snare on "2" & "4" and the right hand playing all eighth notes (1&2& etc) on say the ride or a secondary hi-hat on my right, then, after a couple of bars, four bars, or any short phrase, shift to playing the left foot on "1" & "3" on the double pedal without interrupting the hands, whilst resting the right foot, and then swap between the feet.

Also practice simple eighth note exercises (RLRL played as 1&2&3&4&) first with the hands for one bar then with the feet for another bar for a bit, then swap around with LRLR for both hands and feet.....then challenge yourself and do the sixteenth note version of these exercises, both with RLRL top and bottom and then LRLR. You'll find trying to keep LRLR as "1e&a" "2e&a" for feet a good challenge especially. Do these as both heel up and heel down exercises.

[drumsetsnide]

Posture, Posture, Posture and Practice, Practice, Practice!!!

To achieve good posture and keep from leaning back or forward you need to be well balanced on the throne as Marko mentioned and keep a straight back as Russ brought up and strengthening your core muscles is vital to achieve both. I can't stress, enough, the importance of good core strength to keep balanced and maintain proper posture.

As far a practice, well, it's obvious that with any aspect of drumming the basics (rudiments) are essential and from there you will develop consistency, coordination, endurance and speed. Practice both heal up and heal down. Drumbledore brings up some very good practice tips.

[mepbuzz]

Looking into foot techniques I found I had already developed a heel-toe technique for my right foot over the years. And I do play my rudiments both heel up, heel down (and heel-toe). That just makes sense to get better control over my left foot. Besides that there's some simple grooves incorporating the double bass that I've incorporated in my warm up.

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