Chop Techniques

Ever imagine being able to play doubles and singles on your bass like you could with your sticks? You maybe thinking that's impossible or there's no way. I wouldn't shut yourself off from the information about to be revealed here. Its absolutely incredible being able to play a single pedal and do some quick doubles here and there making it sound like your on a double bass drum. Not to mention the possibilities you'd have on a double pedal whipping up some insane grooves, maybe even on odd time signatures. Now we're talking expert level but the possibilities are endless here.

The Wrong Way

I understand some of you may have learned the wrong way about playing doubles on the bass drum that can actually cause harm to your ankles. Its important that to get rid of a habit you have to replace it with another one. Which technique am I talking about? Well it begins with heel up position and you'd do a regular motion to hit the drum then slide your heel to the outside of the pedal and press down again. Through some practice this does work, but after doing some reviews on it and noticing that it can cause you to have bad joints in your ankles. Not something anybody would want. But I should add there is a resolution to your probably and yet a better technique that's more effective and much more healthy for your body. 

Double Stroke Technique

Firstly, I must state that this isn't going to be easy for many of you, and it may take a month practicing a few hours a week to really have it down. But just like the sweep motion referred back on the stick control page you can accomplish more with this technique and use less effort in playing. I'm one of those guys who wishes to be in my 70's playing at very fast speeds like Buddy Rich but with my feet as well. 

I would have to say setup of the pedal is about 50% of the technique, at least while learning how to utilize it. I'm going to explain how it works then going to show you some modifications that can be made to make it all possible. With that said lets begin. This technique is pulled off from starting off at the heel up position. Press your heel down like it would cause the bass drum to hit then lift your heel up so the front ball point of your foot presses on the pedal. Your main goal is to over exaggerate the motion so your you build muscle memory and your feet will be comfortable doing the motion with ease. 

I would recommend taking off the toe stop on your pedal so you can make contact with your heel hitting the pedal. On that note I have to state that your heel doesn't even have to hit the pedal for this to work as its a whip technique. But for learning this lets stick with the heel over exaggerating and starting somewhat high and coming down on the pedal then lifting the heel back up. You can use this technique slow or fast, it just takes some practice till your truly at that point you can play it at any speed. Though when its really slow it won't work nor does it need to because you'll be able to play singles at that point. 

Bass Pedal Modifications

While your learning this technique you'll most definitely have to be tweaking your pedals to make this work. I already stated that taking off the toe stops is a start but also there should be a happy medium for the pedal to be adjusted higher than normal so your heel can actually make contact with the pedal and force it to move. Higher end pedals have this adjustment but most of us don't. When I first started out learning this I took a bolt and screw and forced some of the chain links together to make it a shorter chain, thus causing it to raise the pedal. Soon after I realized how unreliable that was because it broke eventually. But there is another way for us cheapskates to get by without having to swap in our pedals.

I mentioned it on Tornado Feet but I'll go ahead and say it again. There is a beater that can adjust the distance to the drum giving you about 3" inches of room. Which in turn allows your pedal be positioned higher. Its also more adjustable than that, you can raise or lower it and normally I would suggest the beater to be hitting just below the center of the drum by a couple inches. This beater also has a flat surface that is adjustable, so it hits the drum with more surface area and produces a louder sound. To some of us that just means we won't have to play as hard to make the bass drum heard! 

Another adjustment to the pedal would be to make sure the beater is around 3-4" inches from the head. That's just an estimate as it could be very different for all of us, but one way to tell is when you do the whip motion do you see the beater moving twice but not actually making contact? That only means you need to move the beater closer to the head. When learning this technique, its also wise to make sure there is enough tension on the bass pedal spring so the pedal response faster after the first stroke. Of course once you get much better at this technique you can release some of the tension and make it easier and faster to play doubles.

Don't give up you and I both know you can learn it no problem, but just like everything else in life it just takes a little bit of practice to get good at it. Then start working on your secondary bass drum pedal if you play double bass. There is so much to be had with this technique that even a lot of the intermediate and expert drummers would think your awesome. If you have success with this or just want to ask me some questions feel free to email me, my contact information is below.