I can't seem to get away from using too much funk and jazzy type shit in my playing. I know how to play straight forward metal, but I always end up spicing it up too much. And not in a heavy way either. I do little tricks here and there with my snare, bass, cymbals. And the rhythm/feel/sound of it is too poppy, I think. Does anyone else have this problem? I can't think of anything that might help me grab hold of a more metal and possibly more simple style. Am I fucked with this natural urge to be too funky/jazzy with my beats?

Your style is your style. I dont think there is anything you can do about it. You should be happy your not doing the same shit as every other metal drummer out there. The only way it would be a negative is if it sounds like shit with your bands songs.

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add uber fast doubles underneath it, that always seems get rid of that pop feel.


Actually now I am being serious, if you want to play little stuff here and there, that is awesome, take for example Gene Hoglan, he used heaps of Jazz tricks, So does Martin Lopez of the Opeth Fame, huge number of latin/jazz grooves, yet his playing is metal as fuck (and very VERY awesome) but then at the other end of the spectrum we have Lars Ulrich, almost no jazz technicalities here, yet still metal (up to and including the black album) or take the Dude from Cannibal Corpse (name has gone away) Very few little tricks but very metal.

Your style is YOUR STYLE, if you want to Put into fancy shit, do, if you don't, THE DON'T the choice is yours, and to be honest I don't think anyone here can tell you otherwise, we could give you advice, but at the end of the day, it is your playing, which will be different to my playing, which will be different to her playing which will be.... in the end all of our styles are different ever so slightly which gives us our own unique sound and style, you should never change your style of drumming to suit others (okay you can switch modes, if you like from say playing in a thrash band to playing a jazz 3 peice) in fact you should try and develop your style, and eventually it will turn out metal. but also remember if you take any beat and put it over distorted guitars shredding like fuck it will sound metal

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Thanks for not flaming my stupid-ass question, guys.

And I should be receiving a double bass pedal in the mail next week. I'm hoping that will "metal-up my sound" a bit. It will certainly help. Can't wait.

Your listening too much to Nicko McBrain

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LIES!!!!

you can never get enough of Iron Maiden you shall bang your head against a wall to the sound of run to the hills for that comment!!!!

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Wait, you didnt even have a double pedal when you made that post? Of coarse your not going to sound metal! I dont think many people would be able to pull of some good extreme metal with one pedal. Well, unless you just blast the whole time.

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Iron maiden had single pedal and that is very metal, I have heard other bands with single bass sound metal, however generally you are right, a double pedal/bass sound will improve the metal content of your playing.

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I'm really struggling to get to grips with double stuff. I know exactly what the problem is, it's just that everything I do to try and fix it makes it worse.

See, I was never into double kick stuff. I'm pretty fast with my hands, I can do nice little double strokes with my right foot, and only used the left to open the hats or to keep time by tapping the hi-hat pedal. This is where my problem is. I always lifted my foot up high (well off the pedal) when I was pounding the hi-hat pedal because you keep better time that way. I'm pretty sure that's even the recommended way to do it (although I've never had lessons).
Anwyway, I drive for a living and when I joined the band I'm in now (who are VERY Metal) I decided it was time to pick up some double stuff. So as I drove round I'd tap the toe-end of my left foot and use my right heel to bang along with songs. And it worked, I got that I could play maybe 170/180bpm like that.

Then I bought a double pedal (later a double bass drum set-up kit) and.. oh dear. I've stupidly developed a completely different technique on each foot. Now, no matter what I do, I just cannot help lifting my left foot off the pedal. I discovered I could adjust the pedals around to compensate for this at slow speeds (up to around 130bpm) but if I try to go faster than that the action in my legs sort of equals out, so I end up with an uneven "gallop" thing going on. Obviously my next plan was to adjust the pedals exactly the same thinking I could just practice hard and force the left foot into submission. No such fucking luck.

Now I'm totally lost - I've just come back from practicing and I couldn't even do the Roddy (LLLLRRRRLLLLRRRR.. LLLLLLLLRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLL.. etc) thing at 122bpm! One hundred and twenty fucking two bpm!

The only thing I can think of now is to leave it for a few days and see if that helps. I've been practicing hard for a couple of weeks and getting steadily more and more frustrated. Gah.

Alright man, I have a solution. Forget about your right foot. Do not use it at all for a few days or weeks or however long it take you to make them do the same technique. Teach your left foot like you taught your right foot. Play everything with your left foot instead of your right. And don't allow yourself to give up on it. When you get fit playing bass with your left foot, go back, and get comfortable playing double bass the right way. It will work.

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That's a good idea, actually. Shall certainly give it a try (although we're recording our second demo in 2 weeks). Thanks, man.

look at your knees/feet in general when you are practising your foot stuff, look at how high you lift, and try NOT to do this, ultimately when you are up in the 200's your knees whould be moving about an inch or so at most.

this may sound a little simple, but the theory is that you are using more than one sense and so good technique that you practice gets burned into your brain more easily (so spake Mike Mangini)

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No problem.

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Cheers NZ, I'll have a go at that tomorrow. I'm not at all concerned about going over 200 or anything - the fastest of our songs where I need to do any double stuff is at 180 and I can usually nail it when we play it, just can't get it sorted to practice it.

I've tried using my left foot for the normal bass stuff today and realised how weak and useless it is, so that's certainly something I'll be doing more. It's so fucking annoying knowing exactly what the problem is and having the power and all to play at speed, just being physically unable to control what I'm doing with my left ankle. Making me so frustrated and taking up so much time that I'm not practicing anything else. We're recording in 2 weeks and I've got 2 new songs to sort out, but this is just consuming me at the moment. Wish in a way I'd just stuck with one bass.

Six months ago I thought I was quite a good drummer, now I feel like a right gormless gimp - all because I've let myself pick up a bad habit that I just can't unlearn.

I never thought i was good. I actually think i suck, but people always tell me im good. I dont realy even know.

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I got my double kick pedal today. I've accomplished quite a bit for just recieving it (although I have played one before). I've always adjusted fast to new musical shit though. Anyway, it definitely metals up the sound. It allows me to concentrate more on the kick drum than the snare. Thus giving the boot to all the excess jazzy shit.
To whichever one of you who has the problem with his left/right foot working well together (I'm kind of mixed up now on who's who in this thread, now ), I noticed I had to make some different adjustments/settings to my left and right kick pedals. I don't know the technical terms, but things such as the tension, closeness of the beater to the drum, how much release, etc differed somewhat in the left and right pedals in order for me to have a comfortable way of playing them both. I thought both pedals should be about the same in their adjustments, but fuck that. It works better just to fuck with it and make it work right for my feet. Maybe you should try the same.
Time seems to be how I make up for problems in my musical abilities. If I can do something, I usually pick it up quite fast. So I'm not into theory or anything. If it doesn't come natural, I don't do it. I guess that's why I have a hard time relating to other musicians. Unless they suck.

It was me!

Yeah, I had my pedal adjusted so that the left beater was slightly closer to the drum than the right one which works at slow speeds, but as I speed up I find it makes the unevenness of my technique bring out the "gallop" more. (duhduh..duhduh..duhduh.. etc) as my left ankle bends up too high and leaves the pedal for a split second.

We only do one song with 120-ish bpm double parts in it (a cover of Slayer's Bloodline), so it's not that much use to me - I really need to be able to sort my faster chops out. I've never had anywhere to practice at home, and I suppose I thought that once I did everything would be ok and I could just iron out any shortfalls by relentless practice, but no.

It's like I've taken a wrong turn off a road and I'm trying to put it right by going faster and faster in the wrong direction.

Thanks everyone for your help, though - I've taken it all on board and hopefully I'll be able to report back soon to say it's all sorted.

OK, I'm no drum guru, and never claimed to be either, I can however play 16ths at 160 BPM for 2 minutes straight. I have this wierd thing with my left foot, (Like most of us do) where it's not as "Controlable" I have to watch the fuckin thing while I drum sometimes, because it tends to lift off my pedal and sometimes it wants to wander.
I'm telling you this becuase I want to help. Some guy on this forum said to do this exercise, and I've been doing it for a couple weeks now. I've noticed that I've got more control. I still have a long way to go before it's as comfy as my right foot, and then I have to build speed still, but it's helping.

I set the metronome at 150 and I play;

RRRR LLLL RRRR LLLL for 2 min
RRRRRRRR LLLLLLLLL for 2 min
RRRRRRRRRRRR LLLLLLLLLLLL for 2 min
RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL for 2 min

For the first minute I am striking the snare with every bass stroke,(Twice per metronome count) and for the second minute I am hitting every second bass stroke (Which is on every metronome flash/beep)
When I get to the last part, it's 16ths, so each foot strikes twice per metronome beep. I do a rolls and fuck around on the toms and cymbals with steady strokes for a minute, and on the second minute I just play one of our beats from a tune with regular counting and the odd snare shot with rolls or whatever. After that, I start all over again at 155 bpm, then 160. By the time I get through that, I'm dead.
If anyone out there want to add to that, feel free, cause I need some Ideas for exercise too.

More importantly, watch this guy!
http://www.elementdeath.com/prelude..._apocalypse.mpg

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