Playing the Bass Drum: Heels Up & Heels Down

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about the kick, hence, bass drum, same name. We are going to be talking about some heels up and heels down playing and what that means is heels up, see how my heel is off the pedal board, and heels down. Now you can get, you can get more power out of a heels up kick because when you release your heel off the pedal board you are going to get some more energy driving from your knee down, your shin and into the pedal. It is usually played in more heavy rock funk settings. Now in jazz there is a lot of heels down playing when they are feathering the bass, you know really softly, you are just kind of feathering the pedal. Now you can get, don't get me wrong, you can get a good amount of power out of heels down playing but heels up is where a lot more of the force comes from instead of heels down but it is just, that you have got to find the time between. You have got to find your medium, what you like better."