Little help

Have any of you guys experienced this? I'm sure alot of you have played Hot for Teacher. The band learned it a year ago and it's been great... Lately, my feet have a mind of their own. Sometimes they work, sometimes I can't control them worth a shit. Why is that? I've played the thing for a year and had all the control I wanted, now I wonder if they're going to work night to night. Have you experienced this and what the hell is the remedy? When their not working, I try to change the way my legs and feet feel, while the song is going on, hoping it's tempoary and they end up getting worse. It's driving me nuts. Thanks. Drumskull

Just keep practicing the DB shuffle, guy...for the stamina...you'll get to the point where you use less inertia on your legs with more practice...try to use more foot [as in the ball of, toes, & less upper leg]...well, i always use a little upper leg for this one...I get that foot/ankle/leg pivot going, kind of like that nervous repetitious twitch you can get going with your leg bobbing up & down while your sitting down...hope I'm understanding the prob correctly...
It may be a sleep / eating habits / vitamin thing too...do you smoke or drink at the gig? [if it's at a club]...these are all factors...
STRETCHING your limbs & warming up on the traps or pads & pedal is important also...

Quote:

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I've played the thing for a year and had all the control I wanted, now I wonder if they're going to work night to night

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmmmm...I don't know why you'd be having a prob, here... [img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 27, 2004 03:12 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

DrumSkull,

Describe the footing on what would
be your single-pedal shuffle and then
the double-pedal shuffle. I might have
a suggestion for you that could help.

[img]cool.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 27, 2004 05:42 PM: Message edited by: peter c ]</font>

Hi, Peter. Describe the footing? I only use the double pedal on it, and I use the typical left foot on the down beats and the right on the 8th note triplet before the downbeat.

That is the standard common way of playing it, for 'righteys' anyway.

After playing this tune all that time, did you take a break from playing it [or these types of tunes, involving DB] for awhile? This could explain some AW...

Pete will be able to hit on some pointers when he comes back from 'break'... [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 28, 2004 02:28 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

Hey Fuse-

Nope. Played it 2 to 3 times a week for a year or so, one night, the legs didn't work. I remember thinking, "Huh? What's going on?", then played it the next week, everything was fine, then the following week, legs wouldn't work again, then I started concentrating on what works when they are working, then I'd try to emulate that when they weren't working. I may be taking it too fast, or I may be THINKING about it too much. But, the problems just came at the blink of an eye, so I figured I'd ask the message board to see if anyone had a similar experience. But, thanks for the advice, I eventually stopped working on it, maybe back to the drawing board is the thing to do. I'm trying it, anyway.

Sounds like fatigue too me.

I think that thinking too much may have alot to do with it. A one time fluke of maybe being fatigued may have happened and then after that you wigged yourself out by thinking too much about having trouble. There is the very strange psychological phenomenon of catchers in the majors who develope a mental block of being able to throw to second base due to a bad experience of a throwing error. Weird, but it shows what the mind can do. I remember Stephen Perkins saying that when he started working on double bass, he had no problem with it. Then the more he started thinking about it, the harder and harder it got, even playing the exact same things at the same tempos.

Da**, that's a good post, matricks...
Yeah, where 1 little DB note feels out of time, or something, then you start wigging.
And fatigue or lack of sleep, or lack of eating correctly over periods of time, or eating/drinking too much [not nec alcohol either] & too close b4 the gig can have a LOT to do w/ it AW...

I 've been there. Sounds like a few of us have, AW.

Thanks guys. Just talking a little about it is making me feel better.