Double-bass practice

**blingdomepiece** · Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 4358 Location: Ottawa ON Canada

OK, just got my double bass setup.

It's pretty fun although obviously there will be a learning curve.

I was able to 5* When You Were Young forcing myself to alternate feet all the way through. Played through Indestructible and Are You Dead Yet and was able to get 4x a few times in the "obvious" parts, but still 4* runs. I also got 5* on Aqualung, alternating the bass-heavy part at the start and end (which I found to be good practice even though it's slow).

Less successful were Spaceman and Ride the Lightning, both 4* runs with some issues. Ride the Lightning I tried to RL every double-bass hit in the song. I actually hit the super-fast one but I missed quite a few of them.

Anyway all this said, I am wondering what would be good things to practice (or songs to play) to get my technique up to snuff. I have two things to work on:

1) Left leg is not as good as my right leg.
2) Using both legs in coordination.

#1 seems easy enough to work on, just play whatever and use my left leg exclusively. I'm more interested in what would be good practice for #2. One thing I find tricky is playing a steady hi-hat while alternating feet. If I alternate hands and feet at the same time that's a piece of cake but if I try to do R-R-R-R-R with my hands while doing R-L-R-L-R with my legs, at any sort of brisk tempo, that's harder.
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Expert Pro Keys: 50/63 GS, most recent The Killing Moon
Expert Pro Drums: 53/83 GS, most recent Free Bird / Oh My God / Oye Mi Amor
Expert Pro Bass: 6/83 GS, most recent Everybody Wants to Rule the World

**Electriczoo** · Joined: 19 Oct 2008 Posts: 9

As much as you'll probably hate to here this, all I can say is practice, practice, practice, and more practice
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**blingdomepiece** · Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 4358 Location: Ottawa ON Canada

**Kelsin** · Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:25 am Post subject:

If you have the Mayhem Pack, take it in practice mode first and play some song using double bass.
I'd say Conquer all is the simplest, it's a constant rythme. When you get to the point where you keep your 4x the whole sections. You can try on other songs, like empire of the gun, and Hammer smashed face.
Then finally, go for Wontak intro, it's really good to practice your legs' independance.

EDIT: This is Exile too, probably before Wontak!
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**the1and0nly1** · Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 996

Conquer All is a great song to practice with. Anything with a basic pattern with your arms along with a lot of bass is good. The Great Satan and the intro to This Calling first come to mind.
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**SnowLeopard** · Joined: 19 Aug 2008 Posts: 33

Hammer Smashed Face is really great to learn double bass during the parts where the actual drummer uses it. To get coordinated, what I do is try to have my arms be the metranome (sp?) and have my legs try and keep in time with them.

I hope that makes sense to you.

Also if you really want to learn double bass get Guitar Hero Metallica. Its probably cheap now and a pretty fun game. However, once you get decent you might start to hate playing Lar's same patterns over and over again.

**Floovenx05** · Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 427

You could take the Double bass part of WAHNTHAC because that keeps a steady double bass beat while not having too hard of a workout on the pads.
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**Auriscope** · Joined: 29 Nov 2007 Posts: 1402

**Brodysseus** · Joined: 01 Jan 2009 Posts: 303

I'd like to add that you really shouldn't get used to useing double bass on parts that don't require it, like when you were young...
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**Midean** · Joined: 18 Jun 2007 Posts: 92

**blingdomepiece** · Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 4358 Location: Ottawa ON Canada

Thanks for the tips guys.

"I think he said he only used Double Bass to get his feet used to alternating, not because he needed it."

Exactly. I could FC WYWY if I chose to grind it so it's not a song that requires double-bass, it was just a song with steady and slow bass I could use to get my feet wet.

"1. Wonthak chorus.
2. This Calling intro and chorus
3. Wonthak double kick part is a GREAT thing to practice, as the double kicks there are some of the fastest and most intricate of any chart.
4. FC Indestructible (Or at least get consistent on the double bass parts; it's irrelevant to the purposes of this thread whether or not there are rolls you can't hit)"

Been working on This Calling and actually got my score up a bit. Also played Constant Motion and American Woman to work on that alternating bass thing. Almost got gold on AW that way so it's already helping.

I've also been thinking about working on a song like Bad Omen or GM/BF doing the double-bass as RL hits. So much to do...

EDIT: Geez, just had a -2/-3 run on Indestructible! Sweet!

"I hope that makes sense to you. "

It does. I think I'll have to work up from slower speeds in practice mode but it looks like a good place to improve.
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Expert Pro Keys: 50/63 GS, most recent The Killing Moon
Expert Pro Drums: 53/83 GS, most recent Free Bird / Oh My God / Oye Mi Amor
Expert Pro Bass: 6/83 GS, most recent Everybody Wants to Rule the World

**Fatsausage** · Joined: 02 Aug 2009 Posts: 159 Location: U bloodey K :/