foot placement

[Rhythmatist]

In order to play comfortably with both heels up your body needs to be balanced and you have to know where your center is. Sit straight on the stool (with the good posture your mom told you to keep) and think of a line going through your body from your head through your butt. That center is where the weight should be. If you begin leaning you will lose that balance point and begin trying to anchor your feet. Allow your feet total free movement on the pedals. You should be able to "float" your feet across the footboards and this will allow you to execute a variety of strokes on the pedals in various combinations in much the same manner as your hands. You don't anchor your elbows to your sides. Don't anchor your feet to the pedals. This can also be effective if you play heel down as well. If you have trouble feeling this and being RELAXED with it, I suggest taking some yoga classes to help you find that balance point with your body and to help you feel what true relaxation is.

When I first discovered this it drastically changed my playing. I found myself able to play for longer periods of time and play with more power and not get tired. I became more accurate overall even in my hands. Check out Billy Cobham's posture at the kit (he's mainly a heel down player) and also look at Weckl, a predominately heel up player. Watch how both of these guys have perfect balance on the STOOL and don't rely on putting their body weight on their legs. Jojo Mayer is another one. Freaky feet, this one. If you have the MD festival video he's on watch the closeups of his feet. He's using a LOT of combination strokes on both bass drum and hi-hat(no double kick pedal required for this cat). Look at it as Moeller for the feet.

[matricks]

Rhythmatist is right.
As far as the drum stool question, i will give you personal opinion (and this is just personal, everyone is obviously different). I like to sit SLIGHTLY above having my legs parallel to the floor. As far as how far i sit from the bass drum, well, i sit a little ways back. To me, i like to be able to excute both heel up and heel down. If i sit too close and play heel down, it feels as if i am limiting my range of motion on the rebound of the beater, is if my foot can't naturally follow the footboard up on the rebound, it feels stiff in my front calf muscle area. If i sit too close and play heel up, it also feels like i am choking the natural rebound of the beater.
So here is the description of how i feel most comfortable. Legs slightly above parallel to the floor. As far as how far away from the pedals, well, imagine this (and i am 5'11" and this would change according to height or body-type). Ok here: imagine sitting on the stool and imagine a straight line going from the front of your kneecap, going perfectly straight down, perpendicular to the floor. Where that line intersects the floor, that is where the BACK of my heel is. So therefore my leg forms more than a 90 degree angle if you were to measure the angle at the back of my knee. My heels are far away from the chain on the pedal, i don't need a toe-stop at all... my heels are almost off the back of the pedals. I feel i can get KILLER power from this stroke with minimum effort. Now, if you sit too far back, you will feel yourself losing power, like the pedal is dying on the way down, the beater doesn't want to get to the head. If you haven't practiced heel down alot, it will feel like this anyway til you get used the technique. Use your normal way of playing the pedal and you will feel where you get the best motion (try to forget what feels 'right' due to practice and wipe the slate clean and feel what feels RIGHT, even if it isn't what you are used to... you'll be happy in the long run.
One more thing, do you bury the beater into the head? This is another thing that i used to do and i thought it would be a bitch to un-learn it. It really wasn't. Only a few weeks of being aware and it worked it's way into my playing. It is SO much better, i mean, everything is working to your advantage; as far as technique: physics, physiology, mechanics all work for you when letting the beater off the head. Musically, you let the drum resonate freely which to me sounds better. Plus when playing double pedal, it isn't choked from having the opposite beater muting the head when playing. The musical aspects are debatable. The physical aspects are not, rebounding the beater is a physcially better technique... people can argue against that all they want, they are wrong! [img]wink.gif[/img] It is physics and science... they can argue til blue in the face but it won't change gravity and motion. It is just the way things work, can't argue it! If you don't play that way, give it a shot, i PROMISE you will never be able to imagine any other way once you get it. Plus people who don't bury the beater can switch up when needed and bury it, but the converse isn't true. Hope this helps [img]cool.gif[/img]