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I have a soft bass drum foot. In other words, I don't seem to generate enough power in my foot/leg to get a nice fat bass drum sound even when I play heel up on the sweet spot of the pedal. (I use both the flat footed and heel up methods.) How does one keep their foot from sliding around on the bass drum pedal when using a pedal without a toe stop playing with the heel up method? Thank you very much for any suggestions and help that you can give me.
On the power thing, I dunno, I guess regular playing pretty much every day can improve strength in your foot, but maybe play around with the height of your stool to see if sitting lower or higher helps you get better leverage on the pedal.
I think the slipping around on the pedal needs for you to make those minor adjustments if there's no toe stop. Like, similar to when sticks slip in the hand, where your hand sometimes ends up gripping the end of the stick and you adjust your grip to get it back in position again. I think after a while you'll get used to it and will be able to reduce the pedal slipping. Try shoes with better grip too. Make sure your foot is kind of staying with the pedal, don't take your foot off it when it comes up, just imagine that it's stuck to it.
Failing that, just put some glue under your shoe. [img]wink.gif[/img]
You just need to practice is all. As far as power goes, maybe go to a gym and start doing some calf raises. For me, I noticed a huge difference in my studio playing once I started doing these. I had to readjust my levels in the studio because I was clipping the meters, I finally realized why this was happening. You might even see improvement in how your foot sits on the footboard after trying the leg work out too.
Frank Briggs has a great book called The Good Foot.
www.frankbriggs.com
hit the exercise bike. I'm an old BMXer and I know that pedaling a single speed BMX bike up those Western PA hills helped build power in my feet.
It will also help with stamina...
Thanks Rudy, Randy, and Benrand for all of your help. I really appreciate your suggestions.
Look into the above suggestions.
Playing will develop your calf-
muscles naturally.
Here's something else you might
try, depending on what kind of
pedal you are using.
Try and change the angle of the
footboard, making the angle steep-
er. This will make your foot and
calf work harder. Also increase
the tension on the pedal a little,
if this does not help.
On these changes, don't do too
much at once. Start with the angle
of the footboard and see if that
does not help. I had your problem
once. Don't worry about it.
Continue to practice.
By the way, may I ask what kind of
drum pedal you use?
How close to the kick are you sit-
ting and how high etc.
[img]cool.gif[/img]
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 26, 2004 11:59 AM: Message edited by: peter c ]</font>
with your heel up technique are you generating the strke from your calf or your thigh?
also, for me, i make sure my ankle is just in front of my knee. in a stright line with the pedal. not too far forward or behind my knee. this is important for energy transfer and mechanics.
i personally try to sit with my thighs somehwere near parallel with the ground.
this is what works for me, but everyones body structure is different. i know of guys that sit fairly high that have no problems.
however, i believe keeping your ankle in front of your knee in a straight line with the pedal is important.
good luck
chris perra
Wow, some more great suggestions! Thanks Peter and Chris for the helpful suggestions. Peter, I use a Tama Iron Cobra pedal and a DW 5000AD pedal. When I play, I sit with my thighs parallel to the ground. Reflecting on Chris' post, I think my ankle is too far in front of my knee. This might be part of my problem. When playing heel up, I generate the strike from my thigh.
DFF,
So, if I have this right, you are
generating an angle of greater then
45-degrees, with you thigh and calf(?).
If this is the case and you're not
lifting your leg much off the pedals,
you are just pushing with your calf
muscle and not the much at that, as
you are heel-up. Is that right?
Heel-up players need to lift their
leg a little or create and angle
that assists in that.
Both those pedals should allow you
to get what you need done DONE.
Try and experiment, taking the
above suggestins into account.
Also, try sitting more in the
center of your throne, if you
are at the edge.
Get back to us...
[img]cool.gif[/img]
for the heel up technique try this,
instead of lifting up your leg from the thigh, lift your heel up by pushing from the calf muscle. this inturn will lift your leg up a couple of inches or so.
this is where the ankle thing comes in. if it's too far ahead, the leg doesn't raise as much. what you want to is, do this in one motion, lift the heel from the calf, driving the leg up a few inches sort of springing your leg in the air.
then the weight of your leg can be applied to the ball of your foot by pivoting a bit with your ankle.
it's difficult to explain, but essentially try not to lift from your leg, it uses up too much energy and 2 muscle groups are firing almost at the same time.
if you drive from the calf, then drop the leg. you get full weight.
good luck
chris perra