okay we are back with another technique
tutorial today's topic is the heel toe
technique last week we had John
Longstreth teaching the heel toe technique
at the drum technique academy so right now I
want to share the three big takeaways
from that lesson with all of you
all righty so let's start with the first
clip John Longstreth and the do's and
don'ts when it comes to the heel toe
technique one of the things I'm gonna
cover immediately off the top here is
the do's and don'ts the do's and don'ts
are they really tie into a couple of
things when people talk about the double
stroke technique on the feet I feel like
judging by the kinds of questions
they're asking is they're looking for a
fast-track method to blazing double bass
at 260 and above for you know twelve
bars without interruption and while that
will happen eventually it did take me
three months working about three hours
three and a half hours four hours a day
Monday through Friday took about three
months before I was able to use this on
use it for the first time in the
rehearsals and the recordings that
created into this by origin so there was
a lot of work going into doing it now
granted I didn't know what I was doing
so I was doing a lot of problem-solving
I was doing you know I was coming up
with an idea and then killing it coming
up with an idea and then killing it that
was a point in time where I was just
like well hell was it I'll just do a
press role on the kick drum and put two
triggers on each kick drum to heighten
the sensitivity of the trigger and see
how that works
didn't work and as I got to doing this
technique and having it work during
practice and eventually having it work
during the album recording I was finding
out that I was doing what I what a lot
of people have been calling either the
double bounce or I don't really know
what they call it it's that's the
version that everybody has in mind when
they say things like that guy's fast
bud he's playing doubles but I think what
happened was a lot of people started
seeing the double stroke as a
thing where you could mush the beater
into the head and just operate off of
the bounce and while I was doing that in
the beginning it developed all kinds of
trouble once I got out on the road and
realized that while you can push your
beaters into the head and kind of get
that you can do that you can do that
with a kits with foot blasters with on
triggers I imagine and a roland kick
head I assume but that became really
problematic as what I was dealing with
with that kind of situation was I'm
dealing with the joint between I'm sorry
that this little bit of a hindrance here
but the joint between the kick drum and
the pedal and when there is this
constant pressure pushing in you're
creating kind of almost a flexi this
really flexible it's a really weak joint
so if I would be on a drum stage if I'd
be on a stage that was soft and there
would be that flexing going on between
the kick drum and the pedal what you
were dealing with right there is a
dealing with a difference you're dealing
with a different space for these pedal
bass triggers to connect with so if I
set up the pedal trigger on a concrete
floor which is the best thing you can do
you know and set it perfectly we would
we would use a sheet of cardstock like a
construction paper or whatnot to set the
ekits back in the early 2000s but if
I got onto a stage that was really
flexible and it would cause the e-cat to
bury into into the receiver and then
you'd get double trigger so it it ended
up being really difficult to get
consistent to get a consistent technique
on this so when I started doing after my
first tour with this was going home and
the idea was to slow it down
and really develop that second note so
the big takeaways from that clip number
one no buzz roll so actually John is
really taking care that his notes
are evenly spaced and the second note
especially the second hit is loud as
well
and the second big tip is and I never
heard that mentioned anywhere is that
you have to be careful about this area
of the bass drum so basically if you're
on a drum riser that's shaky and that's
flexible you're gonna have a hard time
with that kind of buzz roll so it's
vitally important that you got a stable
solid under ground so if you're on a
drum riser this kind of joint here this
special kind of movement can lead to
false triggering and we don't want that
alright now let's watch the second clip
where John talks about the most
important factor when it comes to even
double strokes what I started doing when
I got back home from that first tour
which was kind of a nightmare but a good
learning experience was um was I really
started to slow it down and I really
started to focus on this motion here so
that became really important and I spent
a lot of time just doing that and
anybody that works on the the ankle
lifting you know it's right down here in
the cap is a lot of this motion you
could it's a very similar feeling right
in here kind of maybe even up a little
bit but another thing is it's also at
the very front of the shin just below
the knee is another point that I need to
make with some of the questions that
were asked is uh burn is something
you're looking for a burn you're not
looking for stabbing ripping tearing
pain if that happens and you need to
stop obviously but if it burns just like
walking you mean that's kind of what I
get if you know if I walk for an hour on
tour or anywhere I will start to feel a
burn somewhere in my legs especially
because I'm not in training shape I'm in
tour shape which is kind of not in shape
so this motion very important just to
train my foot to be strong
that downstroke one of the things I was
able to get the you know just kind of
going through the filter of it after a
while I realized that this was the
motion which is the same as this so oh
cool that works look at that so I
started doing that coming back coming
back coming back as I was doing this
this is back in the derek roddy
messageboard days and I'm sure some of
you were there for that we were talking
about this and yes slamming your heels
into the ground was a part of it at the
time and the very beginning it's not
quite there so much anymore I do feel
like since I've switched over to these
acd pedals which have the lowest hinge
point so here the two big takeaways from
that second clip number one try not to
get a buzz role as end result no you
want to focus on the second stroke and
the up motion from your heel by quick
contraction of your calf muscle so the
second stroke also has the same volume
almost the same volume as the first one
and you're going to end up with an open
roll okay and the second big takeaway if
you are working on a new technique like
the heel toe technique you're gonna
learn something new you're gonna get
tired muscle fatigue it's okay at the
end of the session at the next day but
one thing that is not okay is a stabbing
feeling so you don't want to hurt
yourself be careful and again I can't
give you any medical advice so if you
feel any kind of pain go see a doctor
alrighty and now let's continue with
clip number three from John Longstreth 
so the big thing was to develop this
thing here now there's a couple of
methods on developing that which I'll
get into in a couple of seconds but
really what I tried to do for the
longest time to answer another question
how long now I believe 100% in two
schools of thinking I do believe number
one that speed is a byproduct of control
I think that the more you can control
this thing the safer you can push the
speed someone else said the speed is not
abided by product of control but speed
is a product of speed if you push your
body fast enough it will eventually
catch up with how fast your brain wants
to go and that is true as well but
control first-first control please
control the damn thing first control the
thing and then you can push the speed
all you want I do believe that 20
minutes of focused practice is much
better than 3 hours of jamming and kind
of messing around and getting frustrated
and giving up on something and trying
something else that of course works
great too but I also believe that
sitting down for three hours and
focusing on three different things for
different things for three hours and
being focused giving yourself breaks and
all that is important too so how long my
favorite is a good 10 20 minutes of
constant motion does not have to be the
double stroke motion it can be if you're
gonna work on double strokes I feel like
it should be these two exercises right
here and there and they're both you're
not gonna stop moving because you're
always branching off of this so you're
always working the whole double stroke
technique for me is built off of that
kind of depending on how you count it
either eighth notes or sixteenth notes
1 e and a 2 e and a
one and two and three and four it um so
what I tried to do is drop that heel at
will and the first thing I made were
groupings of threes
okay cool so now I can drop the heel at
will you know interesting so that
allowed me just to build threes and then
I just started spamming threes a lot big
takeaway right here control is more
important than speed especially if
you're first starting out
take your time start practising at slow
tempos focus on the upstroke lifting the
heel contraction of the calf muscle to
get an even double stroke roll alright
and that's it for today's lesson if you
want to check out John's full one-hour
lesson then just sign up a
drumtechniqueacademy.net you can find the
full lesson in our bonus section of the
membership zone and also in our closed
Facebook group and that's it for today
have a great day cheers from Vienna
bye-bye
