Welcome to the third and final installment in this series on bass drum comping. This time we’ll be working in 5/4. The phrases included here are intended to help you develop dynamic balance with your bass drum foot in unison with your three other limbs. They are also designed to inspire you to improvise with your bass drum foot handling rhythms generally played on the snare drum. When practicing the pattern below, center your attention on the ride cymbal, hi-hat, and bass drum rhythms, keeping the sounds dynamically balanced as one unit. In addition, focus on keeping the bass drum beater rebounding approximately 2″ off the head to obtain a soft, round sound. (Don’t bury the beater into the head!) Next, try substituting the following nine bass drum riff patterns in conjunction with the ride cymbal and hi-hat rhythm from above. Once you can play the above three-voice examples with […]

November 2012 Issue