Increase Your Bass Drum Speed

Increasing your speed as a drummer should be one of the biggest priorities as a drummer; especially on the bass drum. Bass drum speed is very crucial for all styles of music. Whether you are playing Rock, Jazz, Latin, Pop, or Metal, you bass drum must never lag. Learning how to increase your bass drum speed will help you develop the skills most drummers are missing. Even if you do not play the double bass drum, you should work on your bass drum speed. Foot speed and endurance in general is absolutely an essential for any aspiring drummer. So before you get too carried away with your stick speed and control, please take some time to read up on your bass drum and foot speed.

There are a number of things you can do to work on foot speed and endurance. The number one thing is to work on your rudiments and technique of your pedal work. Now at first you may think “but aren’t rudiments for stick control?” The answer to that is no! Although most people don’t even put these two together; rudiment practice on your feet is a great way to develop speed and control on your bass drum. Start out the basic single stroke roll. If you do not have a double bass pedal, do not ignore this practice, instead play on your single bass drum and you’re hi hats. Practice these the same you would with your sticks.

For increased speed, practice your double stroke roll. This will allow you get double the hits for half the work. When you have this down, try some work with the paradiddle. This won’t directly increase your bass drum speed; however you will develop foot independence which in the long run will help with your speed. Another thing to look at is the posture and the height of your seating. If you are sitting to low, you will have to work extra hard to lift your leg just to get one stroke. On the flip side, if you are sitting too high, you will not have enough distance to drop your foot to get proper power. So make sure you are sitting at just the right angle for your legs.

Some extra tips and tricks I can let you in on are a few techniques that are very popular these days. First off we have the Heel Toe technique. This method (described here) will teach you how to maximize the bounce from the way you hit the pedal itself. Learning this technique is probably the best method of developing speed in a very short amount of time. Another method that is well known is the slide technique. This technique is known for dragging your foot up the pedal to grab two strokes out of one motion. Similar to the heel toe, this technique is another great way in developing speed.

If you are looking at developing your foot muscles, try wearing ankle weights on your legs. This may sound silly at first, but by wearing a small weighted bracelet around your foot will definitely increase your muscle development on your feet.

Practice practice practice! That is the best way to increase any skill on the drum set. A lot of foot work takes a lot of time to develop, so pleased be patient. You will see results if you follow these steps in increasing your bass drum speed!