How to Play Bass Drum

Learning to Play the Bass Drum

Get a good trainer. It is much easier to learn from a teacher, who will be able to correct your errors, ensure that you have good posture and that you are playing accurately. Your teacher will have many helpful tips to improve your learning.

Watch online videos. If you cannot find a suitable teacher, watch videos on how to play the bass drum. Although not as good as a teacher, these will at least show you exactly how to hold the drum and play it correctly. Check out sites such as YouTube for these kinds of videos.

Marching Bass Drum

Have proper posture. Relax. Don't use any more muscles than necessary. Maintain a strong fulcrum. When you are not playing, your hands should be at rest in the set position in order to look confident and professional.

Play the bass drum. When playing a marching bass drum, play in the center of the head. Have the mallet striking at a right angle. The mallet must always contact the head with its full velocity, especially when playing low. Practice playing in front of a mirror to observe your movements. Try filming yourself if mirrors aren't accessible to you.

Improving your music. When playing an orchestral bass drum, strike a bit off-center, this will produce fuller overtones. Make sure that you can play the whole part with proper mallet heights before attempting to split it up with the bassline.

Hit the drum correctly. Make sure it is always hitting the drum in the center of the head, this may be harder if you have a smaller drum. This will get a fuller sound. If you have rolls, make sure your pinkies don't fly out!

Get the rhythm right. Practice with a metronome or electronically quantized music. Understand where the downbeats are present and be able to count all of the rhythms while marking time with your feet. When playing splits, always stay with the full ensemble, don't adjust your timing to a previous error within the bassline.

Don't practice "above your head". Take one step at a time (especially with tempos).

Memorize your music. However, get to know the whole part and not just yours. Knowing how the split flows will help you with your own part.

Practice with the bassline to get your parts solid before going into a rehearsal with the rest of the drumline. Once you rehearse with the drumline, you will see how your parts fit in with the snares and tenors. This will help with cues and timing.

Get your charts. When you set them up, make sure you know where your music starts and stops and how it fits in with the charts. Make sure your spacing in the bassline is even, as this will be very noticeable. Make sure the drumline's arcs and lines are smooth (because you are probably on the end and you can tell if it is smooth, more than the snares).

Play long splits. Playing split sextuplets can look really hard but just know where you come in and it should be fine. Also, don't crush them down. They should sound smooth and not choppy. The same rules apply to 32nd note splits if they are at fast tempos, they probably won’t sound choppy. Just make sure you are hitting all four notes and not just three. If you are used to playing sextuplet runs and then you have a 16th note run, make the switch in your head and play them smooth and even.