Your technique, especially in your left hand, is restricting to your overall motion. You're playing bass more like someone took a horizontal plane, then turned it vertical, but your hand motion doesn't change accordingly.
Work on more of a rotation in your wrists, that will give you a more relaxed approach to the drum, and should help you get a more full stroke, especially for your legato exercises. Keep in mind this rotation is OUTWARD, so when you hold your hands out in front of you, the rotation should be more like slapping a bass guitar and less like knocking on a door.
You're too quick to get quick - if that makes sense. You need to slow this stuff down, and play with a met. Even your 8th notes in your legato exercises were inconsistent. It doesn't show up too much until you get into the fast tempos, and it gets WAY worse when you're playing more notes. (i.e. 16th note accent pattern) There, I can hear the inconsistency in your "8th note" pulse for each individual hand, and your unaccented left hand after an ACCENTED left hand (if your accent is on the "e" of each beat, then this note would be the "a") creeps extremely close to the right hand. Slow it down and play with a met. Work a bucs exercise to help you get a consistent accented and unaccented stick height, then practice going from one to the other, giving you a more consistent up stroke and down stroke.
That's all I've got right now, mainly because I've been procrastinating on a paper, and I really need to get started on it. Good luck!
Happy Drumming,
B
EDIT: You REALLY need to slow down the double/triple exercises. Make sure when you play it, you're not memorizing the hand motion and know the "beat," but make sure that you actually know the RHYTHM. When you sped up the double part of the exercise, your left hand got EXTREMELY lazy, and you can hear a somewhat clear "1e, a2, +a, e+, 4+" but your left hand sounds like "1drop, adrop, +drop, edrop, 4 +" Practice bringing out these second notes of each grouping. In fact, ACCENT them. This will help you build the muscles to stroke out each individual note. Once you can get it consistent and in time with the second note accented, play them at the same dynamic again, and you should be golden. After doing this with the doubles part of the exercise, do the same thing with the triple exercise, and accent the third note. Just make sure you slow this down a LOT. Take it excruciatingly - try 60 - 80 bpm. Subdivide each individual 16th note, and line up each stroke with a specific partial, and not just the first note with the second note falling behind it wherever it just happens to fall.
As a snare player, I've personally found that learning how to play bass well FIRST was the most important thing I could have done to make myself the performer that I am. Enjoy this season, and however more there may be, on bass. The amount of counting, and the need to have to EARN each note, rather than just relying on rebound like you can get in the habit of doing on snare or quads will help make you a phenomenal player.
Edited by bcaviness (02/22/11 03:57 PM)
_________________________
Fresh cup of coffee that reads:
Do what you love. Love what you do.
Previous Topic
Index
