Today, many drummers are playing complex rhythms with their feet that some drummers struggle to play with their hands. The speed of the extreme double bass drumming heard in modern (speed, black, and death) metal bands is astounding. Many younger drummers want to start out by playing along to this music and by playing these furious beats immediately. As I have found with many students, this can be very frustrating, and seem almost impossible. There are many analogies that apply here, putting the cart before the horse, crawling before you can walk, or walking before you can run. Learning the “traditional” way of double bass drumming is essential to developing those extreme double bass drum chops. Amazing double bass drummers such as Joey Jordison, Thomas Lang, and Virgil Donati didn’t invent double bass drumming. Double Bass Drumming began in the 1940s with drummers like Louie Bellson and Dave Black. It […]

June 2022 Issue