foot doubles kill my groove...

[djkollat]

I've been practicing ALOT to MJ's Rock With You, and now, I've been hired for a gig where I have to play Beyonce's Love on Top. Both songs feature bass drum doubles where there's a ghosted note followed by a primary note on either beat 1 or beat 3.

I've been working on my single-pedal bass drum doubles consistently for a long time (probably specifically focusing on them for about half a year, warming up with them for about 30 minutes to an hour on the kit, exhausting the muscles every day rather like normal exercise ) and am extremely frustrated with why I can't seem to get them to groove consistently. It seems like a very elusive, though basic, concept and I'm afraid my playing will never truly elevate as much as I'd like it to until I can break through this barrier.

I've been trying to develop these doubles via the heel-toe technique. My spring tension is fairly loose, and I've had the 20 gram weight in my falcon pedal (as opposed to the 10 gram or nothing at all) to (in theory) strengthen my ankles in spite of the loose tension. One issue I notice is that when I lift my foot in prep for the double, my body wants to fall forward as my kick drum foot has been propping my weight up to some extent. I've been struggling to end this, as it feels uncomfortable and not conducive to playing with a solid groove... but haven't been able to shift my weight to my seat or the left foot and keep my balance when playing. Though, I don't know if this is the issue. Any help is GREATLY appreciated...

For the record I'm trying to approach this similarly to how I'd develop chops in my hands... I've had little difficulty in developing myself rudimentally with consistent practice. Why can't the same be said for my right foot?

Thanks for any and all constructive criticism!!! Please let me know if you have any questions about my technique or set-up, etc so that I can get as much feedback as possible.

[late8]

Try lowering your throne by an inch. This may feel uncomfortable at first but by the way your describing what happens when you lift your left foot to prep for the double, you maybe sitting too high on the throne.

[slinglander]

It does sound like a balance thing. Try not putting your left foot on your HH pedal but on the floor next to it and see if your balance changes. Remember playing heel & toe don't lift your foot off the pedal-that'll change your balance too, just raise your toes and lightly balance on your heel. If you use a standard pedal I think heel & toe easier than on a long board pedal where your foot searches for the "sweet spot" for the fulcrum.
late8's advice about throne height may help, even moving the throne forward or back to suit.
Also moving your arms while playing will change your balance so playing toms might be more trouble for you than playing the HH and snare as you work this out.

[slinky]

It seems like a an easy thing and maybe it is for some people. I'm not nearly as fluid with it as I'd like to be. This video is pretty cool shows his footwork really well.

[slinglander]

Oops, my bad! I was thinking of heel down!

[djkollat]

Something else that I should mention...

I've made a habit of lifting my whole foot/leg for individual strokes, etc, rather than keeping it held up after hits. My idea behind this was to keep from burying the beater into the head, thus allowing the drum to resonate fully.

So, when my right foot isn't playing, the heel is down, but I lift the whole foot back up for power, etc when playing rock/pop music. Is this conducive to playing doubles with the heel-toe technique? Do I have heel-toe confused with something else? Should I play swivel, or slide technique, etc based on the motion I'm describing above? Thanks for your patience with a newbie like myself.

I see alot of guys with fast doubles tending to bury the beater into the head. Is this a necessary facet of playing doubles efficiently?

Thanks for the advice thus far. I've been experimenting and practicing with everything that's been said, very useful ideas!!!

I'm not opposed to "burying the beater" if it works, of course. Just something I haven't fully fleshed out yet. Though, I do tend to prefer the sound of a well tuned/resonating bass drum.

[MDK]

I still do this a few times a week for about 2-4 minutes. Set a metronome at 100 , place left foot on hi hat, right foot on BD left hand flat on snare, right hand flat on floor tom (no sticks) and just play doubles on the bass drum keeping the ball of your foot on the pedal at all times. Still heel toe but foot never comes off the pedal.

This really helped me with a similar balance/foot issue.

[slinky]

I think it depends on the speed that someone is playing. If it's slow, heel down should work without burying the beater but doing something like in the Colaiuta video I think it would be a tall order to play that heel down. Likely impossible because it would take too much time to allow the beater to come back completely off the head.

A buried beater probably does take some resonation out but it's a minute amount. Unless a bass drum is completely empty with no muffling device then it will fully resonate. My bass drums are empty but not totally. I use the Remo Muffl's on the batter side to take away some resonation I don't want.

Fast doubles take a lot of practice. The balance part of it is a key to doing anything on the drums. The falling forward could just be anticipation of the next double, thinking about it too much.