Some pedal help

[sharpdust]

I tried searching for this, but couldn't get the right answer I was looking for.

When it goes something like this on drums...

note
pedal
note

when do you start to pick your foot up? like i always miss it since i'm subconsciously trying to hit the pedal and note together since that's how it usually goes in medium.

also, what would you say the best song to practice this would be?

Thanks.

[Riggz13]

I have a lot of trouble with that too, I'd say Wave of Mutilation would be good for practice. There's several long sections in there where the kick pedal is on the opposite beats of the pad hits. As far as when to pick up your foot, I always try to have it going up as my sticks are going down, so that my foot is going down when my sticks are coming up, and are then opposite from each other. I can't seem to get it though, hence I was always a trombone player.

[AdamWill2]

there's no 'right answer', it just depends on your style of playing the pedal. it's a mental thing, not a physical one, really.

[Wolfwere]

My method for those sections is to lock into my brain that I'm raising my foot as my hands come down, when I was first getting used to it I would visualize hitting a drum with the top of my toes at the same time that I was hitting the pads.

I don't pay any attention at all to the orange bar, just the drum pad notes. As long as your foot is going up when the sticks come down, and vice versa, you should be ok. Exaggerate the movement of the sticks a little if you need to, the timing for this method flows much more smoothly when the top of your stick movement occurs halfway between pad notes. If your foot is mirroring your hands that means it will be down at the right time to hit the offbeat note.

This gets a LOT easier when you don't have to think about maintaining off-beat hits with only your foot.

[iDrum]

Heh, being a band geek has made this game (and guitar hero) so much easier.

But anyway, I tend to bring my foot up at the same time that I strike down on the pads.

[Project_Mercy]

Your foot will go where your brain thinks it should play. The problem is that you've trained your foot (so far) to play when your primary hand hits the pad. Now you need to break that habit.

In your head say "dum-cha" or "cha-dum" (depending on how you look at it) and try to mentally say that when you hit and kick.

You'll find more info on it if you do a search for off-beat kicks, which is what you're talking about.

[MrNazraq]

I had a hard time with those parts, too.

Basically now I just visualize that I'm falling to the ground. Of course my feet are gonna land first, and then my hands after that. Then, I straighten my back and "fall" forward again.