I watched Ray Luzier in a drum video a while back talking about a very simple pattern he likes to use around the drums that involve the double bass drum pedal. While practicing the drums this morning I suddenly realised that I use this idea all the time in my own playing. It’s such a simple combination of ideas that most drummers that have been using double bass drum pedal for a while will have most probably played it already.
The fill idea consists of two individual parts that are put together into one pattern. Here are the two parts…
The first bar on the left shows a six note pattern with four notes played on the hands and two notes played on the double bass drum pedal. Of course, this pattern can be played with one bass drum foot depending on how efficient and speedy you are with the one foot!
The second bar on the right shows a three note pattern with one note played on the hands and two notes played with the double bass drum.
What you can do next is to combine these two patterns and play them through sixteenth note triplets like this…
The six note pattern is played once and the three note pattern is played twice creating a two beat pattern. This can then be used to fill a whole bar of four beats by repeating this new combined pattern twice as shown above.
The fun bit for me is to then explore how you can move this pattern around the drums and tom toms. Here is the first suggestion you could try out…
All three tom toms and snare drum are involved with the hands moving around the drums in a clockwise manner.
Here is another permutation you could try…
This idea uses flams as a fun variation within the three note grouping part of the pattern.
Finally, you can mix up the groupings of notes to create a brand new rhythmic possibility. This last idea shows how Ray Luzier would play the pattern. This is my favourite as the grouping is now nine notes long and moves across the beat. Each nine note pattern takes up a beat and a half of the bar and creates a really cool sounding effect…
You could next explore moving the hands around the drums for this variation as well. The possibilities are endless and of course don’t forget that you could try playing all of these patterns with just the one bass drum foot as well if you feel up for it.
If you’ve never used a double bass drum pedal before and you’re not sure where to start then check out my beginner lesson on double bass drumming…
Have fun drumming!
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