How to Play the Double Bass Drum

So you have just purchased a double bass drumming pedal and you want to learn how to incorporate this into your beats and grooves. Or perhaps you are looking at buying one and want to know what good it can do. Either way, this lesson will teach you the some basic double bass drumming patterns you can start out with. Learning how to play the double bass drum will increase your skills and potential as a drummer by so much it is unreal. Even if you do not play heavy metal music or rock, you should still learn this style of drumming. It will improve your independence and control on your feet by a lot!

Start off with some basic rudiments on your double bass drum. These are the essentials to all drum development. The one I would practice the most if you are starting out is the single stroke roll on the bass drum. Play this one your double bass pedal:
RIGHT  LEFT  RIGHT  LEFT  RIGHT  LEFT  RIGHT  LEFT
Once you have this down, you can play a basic double bass drumming pattern. Remember that this does not need to be a heavy metal groove, you can play it anywhere.

Before we go on, let’s play a basic 4/4 drum beat on the kit. This will be the basis of the double bass drumming pattern that we are about to play. Try this beat, a basic 4/4 groove playing eighth notes on the hi hats:

Now that we have that done, we can add in the double bass drum over top of that. This is as easy as playing the single stroke roll over this beat. Like we practiced above, start with your right kick, playing 16th notes on you bass drum. You can either start with your bass drum, or the hi hat, that is completely up to you. Practice this beat a lot; it is the basis of most double bass drumming.

This may sound like a heavier beat, but you do not have to let be that way. By locking the hi hats closed, you can get a nice clean sound. Or you can switch over to the ride cymbal to give the pattern a whole new feel. This is just one small example of many different beats and variations you can do with the single stoke on the bass drum. Try experimenting by playing a single stroke roll on the double bass, and adding your sticks overtop of that. You can add so much spice to this rudiment by playing some toms, cymbals, and other voices over top of this driving pattern. So have fun with this, I hope with this starting point you can really broaden your double bass playing! Have Fun!