- Hey guys, this is Ash Pearson,
and I'm here, at Drumeo headquarters
in Abbotsford, and I'm here to talk
to you today about the double bass drum pyramid.
Okay, so some of you might have heard of the rhythmic scale.
This is basically that, but just on the feet.
So that is where you take a tempo,
like, pretty slow, like 40, or in
this case, today, I'm gonna be doing 55 beats a minute.
And within this space, we're going
to be doing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
all the way up to eight notes within that space.
So there are lots of great episodes,
lessons, if you will, on Drumeo,
of this exact thing, and it's very important,
it's a very essential thing to learn
for any drummer, especially on the hands,
because you're gonna be playing all
these different note values at some point
in your drumming career, and it's really important
to be able to understand, and listen to, and be able
to perceive those note values when you hear them.
So as an extra added bonus,
we're gonna be doing them on our feet.
So this is primarily for the double bass drummer,
but you can also use this, if you're
just a single kick player, and just use your left foot
on your high-hat, but for the purpose of today's video,
we're gonna be doing it on the double bass.
So I'm gonna run through this rhythmic scale
on the feet, using this Iron Cobra, Tama
Iron Cobra double kick pedal, here.
So we're gonna put on the click,
and the ostinato is gonna be very, very simple.
So it's just going to be
So that's the ostinato on the hands,
and the snare's gonna be on the two and the four.
Pretty simple.
So this will allow us the space to be able
to really focus on what our feet are doing.
So here we go, check it out.
So the examples that I just did was starting
from one, and I went all the way
up to eight, and then I stopped.
So you can go from one to eight,
and then eight to one, or if you
really wanna get crazy, you could go one,
to three, to five, to seven, to two, to four, to six.
You could go nuts, so if you really wanna get
into something like that, learn the note values,
and then just write out on a sheet
of paper some random numbers, like that.
One, three, five, eight.
And then just challenge yourself to be able
to bounce back and forth, like all over the place,
to those different note values.
Then you'll really, really know
that you got it under your belt, for sure.
And for those of you who don't know,
what I was doing there was just one notes,
and then eighth notes, or sorry, the one notes.
They're quarter notes.
So in my mind, I'm thinking one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight,
but in actuality they're quarter notes,
eighth notes, eighth note triplets,
1/16 notes, quintuplets, 1/16 note triplets,
septuplets, seven, and then 1/32 notes.
So that's what that whole pyramid was,
those were the technical terms of those note groupings.
So that's what you're looking at.
So if you wanna research any of that stuff,
just, you can go to drumeo.com,
put in septuplets, or quintuplets, or something
like that, because those are some
of the harder note values to really get good on.
So if you want to learn some more stuff about
those note values, and different ways
that you can apply them, check it out online.
And that's basically what we were doing, right there.
As an extra added bonus, and challenge,
to you guys, I'm going to play the same exercise
that I just did, except I'm only gonna be playing
what the right foot was doing,
and then I'm gonna go back to the beginning,
and I'm only gonna play what the left foot is doing,
and that's the hardest part.
So just for the sake of illustration,
I'm going to just, basically, any,
whichever foot is not doing any work,
I'm just going to play it on the carpet,
just so you can kinda see how the exercise is
still moving along, and the idea will be
just to be able to hear what's actually going on,
what's actually being played.
And I want you to really try and think,
and even clap, and sing, what the fives are doing,
or what the sevens are doing, like (mouths rhythms).
Whatever note value's happening,
just maybe pause, and then listen,
and then just try and do it, try and sing it,
'cause that will really, really determine
how well you can actually perceive
and understand these note values.
So anyways, here we go.
55 beats a minute.
All right.
So that's the right side, and I cut the amount
of time in half, of how long I play it,
but that should give you a good idea.
Okay, now the tough part.
Let's do the left foot.
So there you go.
That is the right side and left side isolation
of the rhythmic scale pyramid on the feet.
So the reason I show you the right and left side is
because that is so much tougher to do, and to be able
to hear, in your head, and be able to play.
But the real benefit of being able
to understand, and play, that kind of stuff, is
that it saves you, it makes all your playing sound cleaner,
because you actually understand the space
between the notes, and then it also helps
you conserve energy, too, because
you understand what note value you're going for,
in reference to a guitar, or something like that.
So if you're trying to play really fast,
you're not just busting out a bunch of singles,
not understanding what it is that
you're actually trying to play.
You're actually understanding that
you're doing 1/32 notes, or you're understanding that
you're doing broken-up quintuplets, or something like that.
It's a really important skill to have, so there you go.
Check it out.