The Drum Hang - Episode 15 Feathering the Bass Drum
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- The ultimate guide to feathering your bass drum. In this episode you gain 3 major concepts that will drastically improve your volume and swing feel when feathering the bass drum. These concepts will work for you because they work for many legendary jazz drummers including the great Louis Hayes. Get your feathering together today!
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Hey this is really helpful. I am one of those who came from rock and now I’m venturing in the world of jazz. Thanks for saying not to make a big deal out feathering. I always imagined you had to get four on the floor at uptempos and I naturally want to play on one and three. It just feels more comfortable.
Go with what makes you comfortable, the groove and your fellow musicians will thank you! Thanks for checking out the video Nick.
Super thankful for this lesson. I'm just getting into swing drumming, and this cleared the subject up a ton. I was letting the beater bounce off, but playing a dead stroke does sound a lot better! I like to think of it like I'm tapping my foot along to the music! Thanks for the lesson :)
Thanks Tyler, thank you for checking our the video and for the comment.
Some great points on feathering Chris. Coincidentally I was listening to Ahmad Jamals early recordings for the last few days and realized how well Vernel feathers. Sometimes he doesn't at all, sometimes he does it very softly and sometimes he feathers a bit louder than usual when Ahmad's really bringing it home. Sometimes he starts feathering during or before the count off. And of course there's all the hits he pops with Israel Crosby inbetween the feathering. Also there's parts where the feathering drops out for a few bars just to feel that space empty before they build up again. I need to go work on my feathering!
Ha, very very good ears and good points. I am finding that the feathering is really a personal thing and something that I am pretty sure not many great drummers were thinking about. They just did. Like some guys had wider cymbal beats and some guys leaned more toward the dotted 8th 16th, to each their own as long as the music was supported and feeling good. Thanks for the great comment!
Hey Chris, Love the lesson on bass drum feathering! There is some lack of instructional techniques when it comes to drumming and the feathering subject is definitely one of them. I liked the vids of your mom and dad playing and I could tell that you are very proud of them! I too had parents that supported my passion for playing drums at an early age and put up with many hours of my practicing of them! Thank you!
Supportive parents are the best thing for young musicians. Thanks for watching the clip.
Great lesson! Thanks for the knowledge!
dude great video man, love your content! Really insightful!
Thanks for letting me know Tyler!
"it ain't that shit!" Hahahahaha love your stuff
I had the chance to catch your playing a few times in Greeley, killerrrr!
Woo Greeley, lots of good musicians in Greeley! Thanks for checking out the video.
Love your videos! Amazing information. I read your book as well. Fantastic! Keep up the great work!
Thanks for sharing these concepts!!
Thanks for checking them out, hope they help!
Love the idea of the shadow wall, very well presented videos Chris, thanks!
Thanks Carlos, keep coming back I'll keep putting up videos!
Really great channel, thank you
Just discovered your videos recently and I'm truly enjoying them!
Two suggestions: (1) use either a very dry ride cymbal or maybe an unlathed flat ride so we can hear the definition of your right hand patterns during your demonstrations; (2) lose the swearing - it adds nothing and it's distracting. I mean this constructively. Thanks!
JazzDoc, I greatly appreciate your suggestions. I think you are right and I will keep these in mind with videos in the future. The ride cymbal sound is especially bad on this video, I am pretty sure a result of the camera and mic being under the cymbal and not over top. Either way I have a great Paiste Dry Ride that I can use, and actually did use on the new episode that will come out. Thanks for checking out the videos, subscribing, and offering your take. Be well and hope to hear from you again sometime!
I love the swearing
@@funkwagonfefe “I rest my damn case.” Definitely a comedian in the timing and delivery.
Thank you!
Your mom is swingin!
Great video
Ha, yes! Thank Pete
Chris it would be nice if you can do videos on when to accent bass drum and on snare as well. Thank you
Something cool/helpful I noticed: it seemed when you were comping with the BD you used a combination of open strokes and muffled notes. Particularly when you played doubles it seems a lot of the time you muffled the second note just like you muffled the feathering notes. I tried this and it’s super useful in clarifying the articulation of bass drum doubles, especially at faster tempos. Awesome video Chris!
Jameson, excellent point and good catch! Yes. If I am just feathering lots of dead Strokes, not always though. Honestly though I think playing those dead Strokes helps you then be able to play little bounces with control. Who knows, but it's just my experience. Hope it helps you too man. Thanks for the comment!
Exactly, yup muffled second note. It's the Elvin influence I think. Hope you are well buddy!
thats´s gold
Hello! I have a very important question. Greg hutchinson says 'you do not supposed to dig into the heads, you have to hear that ring, that open sound. But you say opposite of that...
Well Greg is one of my favorite drummers and not only one of the great jazz drummers today but also one of the great jazz drummers of all-time! So simply what works for me is not the same technique that he prefers. I want bass drum tone, but I don't prefer it when I am feathering. One point though, I don't feel like I ever "dig" into the bass drum head or any drum head. I agree with him, you can't get tone or sounds playing that way. So when I let my beater stay on the bass drum head I am not digging or pushing hard, I am simply letting it stick there for a second to muffle the tone not completely kill it. It has slows down my beater speed and helps my right foot subdivide triplets. So, there is never one way to do anything and we all have different sound concepts. I am surely no Hutch, he's a master, but I do know what works for me also works for many other jazz drummers I have watched. Thanks for the question!!
Chris, that's great. Excellent explanation - thanks! I "feather" ever since, but this did indeed put a new angle on it all.
There is only one thing I just don't really get conceptually: Why would you feather uptempo on "2" and "4" at all? Isn't that even harder than on "1" and "3" - and wouldn't the latter make the swing more stable / better to begin with? Any thoughts on that?
I feather at very fast tempos because it never feels natural to not move my leg at all. Even if I were to play single note bass drum figures from time to time as comping, in between them to not move my bass drum feels so so strange. I think the more I have gotten used to feathering and playing my bass drum constantly at slower tempos, it follows to faster tempos. To not feather something in my bass drum regardless of tempo feels incomplete. Make sense?
@@ChrisSmithJazzDrumHang 👍
Great video! I'm curious about your opinion of bomber beaters as a way to soften the bass stroke.
Hi Steve, thanks for checking out the video and for the question. When Vater reissued the bomber beater several years ago I bought one and played it for about 2 years. My conclusion was that it didn't allow me to play the full dynamic range I wanted. So yes while the fluffy helped "soften" the blow and volume, it also made playing strong and articulate not possible. Also I felt that the cork core was too light for my taste, I like a bit more weight in a beater so I can get strong especially if I am playing with really strong players at a club here in NYC or definitely for a big band gig. I suppose the place for the fluffy beater would be a really really soft gig where I would never have the opportunity to play a nice full stroke, but for me in that situation I'd rather just throw a little towel in my drum bag and adjust it on the batter side of the BD head on the gig and customize the amount of muffling for the room...then play a full troke. My thoughts. Also last thing, the vintage old bombers did have heavier cores and real lambs wool covers which is a totally different thing and I might get behind them much more.
Do you play one? Does anyone have info on these beaters, because I think there are several on the market now. I haven't experimented with them in 8 years or so?
I play the Vic Firth Vic Kick "bomber" model (VKB3). I like it better than the.Vater bomber. It gives me sufficient dynamic range for my playing.
@@congamonty Great to know, I'll have to try one! Thanks
Aye the moleskin your going old school. Elvin Jones used mole skin and wood beater
Ken, I tried to use a wood beater once and it was way to unforgiving for a me. It was eye opening and horrifying to me. Do you use one?