Bass drum
From Free net encyclopedia
A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The type seen on drum kits is often incorrectly referred to as a "kick" drum, usually by non-drummers and especially by recording and sound engineers. (To separate "double bass" from the orchestral instrument)
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Usage
It is used in orchestral music, marching music, and throughout 20th century popular music as a component of the drum set.
In popular music, the bass drum is used to mark time. In marches it is used to project tempo (marching bands historically march to the beat of the bass). A basic beat for rock and roll has the bass drum played on the first and third beats of a bar of common time, with the snare drum on the second and fourth beats, called "back beats". In jazz, the bass drum can vary from almost entirely being a timekeeping medium to being a melodic voice in conjuntion with the other parts of the set. In classical music, the bass drum often punctuates a musical impact, although it has other valid uses.
An orchestral bass drum is quite large, about 36" in diameter, and is played with one or sometimes two large, padded mallets. Usually the right hand plays the drum and the left hand muffles it. When played with both mallets, a knee or forearm can be used for damping. Orchestral bass drums can sometimes be used for sound effects. e.g. thunder, or an earthquake.
In a drum kit, the bass drum is much smaller, most commonly 20" or 22" but sizes from 16" to 24" are quite normal, with depths of 14" to 18", although some brands have made 20" sizes. 26" in diameter is not unusual in a big band, and extremes both larger and smaller are sometimes seen. It is usually more heavily muffled than the classical drum, although it can be a bit "boomy". But this can be stopped by placing a pillow or a blanket against the back head to poduce a good solid thud. It is played using a pedal operated mallet, which a right-handed drummer will conventionally operate with the right foot. Sometimes the front head of a bass drum has a hole in it to allow air to escape when the drum is struck for shorter sustain. Muffling, such as pillows and blankets, can be installed through the hole without taking off the front head. The hole also allows microphones to be placed into the bass drum for recording and amplification.
Double bass
Image:DW pedal 9000.jpg In some forms of jazz, rock, hardcore punk and many forms of heavy metal, particularly thrash metal, metalcore, power metal, black metal, and death metal, two bass drum pedals are used, one operated by each foot. Originally two tuned bass drums were used for this, but a double pedal on the same drum using an extension mechanism (see illustration) is now more common, particularly due to the significantly lower cost. Although a double pedal will help conserve space, drum resonance is affected by having two beaters playing one drum which is why many drummers, particularly, nearly all of the well-known practitioners, will opt for the classic two bass drum setup. Some drummers have also experimented with two different bass drum tunings, sometimes combining this with double beaters so as to have more than two pedals. With two feet playing bass drum, many of the techniques of snare drum playing (such as rudiments and rolls) can be performed on the bass.
With many double bass drum pedals the common use of a hi hat drop clutch is used to be able to hit the hi hat and it not ring. This allows the drummer to use the double bass and the hi hat at the same time. This is very common among double bass drum players
Double bass drum techniques were first used by artists such as Ray McKinley as far back as the 1940s, and then further pioneered by artists such as Louie Bellson in the 1950s and popularised in the 1960s by Ginger Baker of Cream and Keith Moon of the Who, and popularised even further in the 70s, with Eric Carr of KISS and Terry Bozzio. In certain types of metal, the drummer plays a constant stream of rapid-fire notes on the bass drum, and the ability to play evenly at extremely high tempos is prized (as exemplified by Canadian band Eudoxis whose bass drums measured six feet in length). While metal drummers are stereotyped among some as focusing exessively on double bass speed, other metal drummers of various genres, such as ex-Blind Guardian drummer Thomen Stauch, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy (who could also be classified as a progressive rock drummer), and Cryptopsy's Flo Mounier are also known for varying their double bass patterns and using them to interact with the other drums in a complex and creative manner. Additionally, some drummers, such as Lamb Of God's Chris Adler, rising death metal star Tim Yeung and As I Lay Dying's drummer Jordan Mancino are notable for being able to execute complex bass drum patterns at very high speeds while playing independent patterns in the hands.
Additionally, many extreme metal drummers use a combination of fast-double bass drum patterns, the snare, and the cymbals to create an extreme blast-beat sound. The hyperblast style, exemplified by Flo Mounier, is an example. Blast beats on the double bass drums combined with a more standard thrash-pace rhythm on the snares and toms are more common among thrash metal and particularly European power metal. Of course, there are exceptions to both the aforementioned generalizations.
Some metal bands have turned to using triggers, although this practice is frowned upon by some fans and some drummers, some of whom might be unaware that the trigger is merely a sensor that produces a certain sound assigned from a sound module, once the head has been struck by the drummer's foot or stick. It allows drummers to focus more on speed and less on volume: because at very rapid speeds it becomes impossible for the legs or feet to make as large motions as when playing slowly, the volume of the bass drum hits necessarily diminish. Triggers will produce a sound whenever the bass drum head is struck, making it so a drummer can gently tap on the head at a very fast rate and still create the sound of a full-on fast drumbeat.
This method has been accepted by many contemporary grindcore and death metal bands who aim for speed that cannot be attained by conventional drumming techniques. There are various reasons why triggers are advantageous. One can always have the desired sound at any time, making them almost essential for somebody who plays two bass drums, for it is impossible to tune two drums to precisely the same note, since no drum is ever identical as the other (not even in case of same brand, model and dimensions). Even players using a double pedal experience this to some degree, as the two beaters hit different spots in the head. In addition, at extremely rapid speeds, the sounds produced by the bass drum, being at a very low frequency, will often become indistinguishable and the effect will be a rumble rather than a series of notes. A triggered bass drum sound often has an audible treble portion, called the "click" due to its sound, guaranteeing that even at high tempos each note will be clearly audible. Triggers are also useful for touring bands who play concerts night after night in venues with different acoustics and various levels of sound quality. The triggers make one less hassle in preparing for death metal concerts, which often feature very large and expensive drum sets played in small, cheap venues.
However, using triggers has its drawbacks. The triggers can be notoriously difficult to calibrate in the beginning: often before calibration a trigger will either produce a flurry of notes from only one hit, or will produce only a few notes when many hits are made. Using quality triggers and spending a large amount of time fine-tuning the sensitivity of the triggering equipment is almost always necessary. Furthermore, triggering necessarily diminishes the potential for dynamic playing: whether the drum is struck softly or heavily, the signal produced by the transducer will always be at a constant volume (though some dynamics are possible, depending on the type of trigger used). Whilst in some cases this is desirable in a death metal band, where the use of dynamics is less needed, it is not in a different setting such as jazz or fusion music. Finally, a triggered bass drum will almost never sound like a real bass drum, even if the sound produced by the trigger is a recording of a real bass drum, as subtleties of individual hits are lost due to the uniform sound produced. In order to alleviate this to some degree, often a recording drummer will choose to employ a mix of trigger and microphone when recording the bass drum.
A few bands use drum machines to obtain impossible bass drum speeds for human legs, but this practice is not well received by fans and musicians who consider it cheating. Some also cite that regardless of how fast drum machine patterns can be, they will never match the sound of a commonly praised death metal master such as Flo Mounier.
Image:Bass drum.jpg The most common method of doublekick playing is a "heel-up" technique: the pedals are struck with the ball of the feet using force primarily from the thigh as opposed to the ankles when using the "heel-down" technique. Most drummers play single strokes, although there are many who are also capable of playing doubles or paradiddles.
A more difficult method is the "heel and toe" technique: the foot is suspended above the footboard of the pedal and the first note is played with the heel. The foot snaps up, the heel comes off the footboard, and the toes come down for a second stroke. This method is much more difficult and tiring than running. However, once mastered it allows the player to lay down very rapid rolls on the bass drum. Noted players include Derek Roddy, Mike Justian, Nicholas Barker, Tim Waterson (who holds the current world record), Danny Carey , Flo Mounier, Chris Adler and Joey Jordison. The technique is commonly used in death metal and other extreme forms of music, but there are musicians such as Thomas Lang or Virgil Donati that employ it for various styles and are also capable of performing impressively complicated solos on top of an ostinato bassdrum pattern. Lang has actually mastered the "heel and toe" to the extent that he is also able to play dynamically with the bassdrum and to perform all kinds of rudimental stuff with his feet.
Many drummers use a drop-clutch mechanism in order to disengage the top hi-hat and free both feet while double bass playing. This results in the hi-hat producing a closed sound until the hi-hat foot is available. The mechanism is disabled by fully pressing on the hi-hat pedal again. Another solution to produce close hi-hat sounds is by mounting an X-hat on the kit, thus leaving the main hi-hat for the open sounds.
Marching bass drums
Image:Jibassline.jpg A unique musical ensemble consisting of graduated pitch marching bass drums is usually found in marching bands and drum and bugle corps. A bass line typically consists of four to six tuned bass drums, although variations do occur. Smaller lines are not uncommon in high school marching bands, and huge basslines of at least 16 musicians have been seen.
The drums typically are between 18" and 32" in diameter, but some groups have used bass drums as small as 14" and larger than 36". Unlike the other drums in a drumline, the bass drums are generally mounted sideways: the two drumheads don't point up and down, but left and right. As a result, bass drums are played with a different technique than other drums in the line.
The drums are tuned such that the largest will always play the lowest note, the closest smaller one will play a higher note, and so on, with the smallest drum playing the highest note. In the case of the standard 5-drum bass line, the writer has 31 different sounds (excluding special techniques like rim clicks) with which to work. The bass drum ensemble can be very important for a group: they typically provide impact, melody, and tempo due to the muffled yet incisive nature of the sound of the instruments.
Tonal bass drums are tuned higher than kick drums or orchestral bass drums so complex rudimental passages can be heard clearly. Each player usually carries one drum, though in rare cases players carry two or three smaller drums at once. Skilled bass drum lines can execute complex linear passages so convincingly that it sounds like the entire bass drum part is being played by a single musician. This is the biggest distinguishing characteristic of the marching bass drum—its purpose is to convey complex rhythmic or melodic content, not just to keep the beat.
A typical 5 men Bass Line requires different skills, however not levels of skills. Contradicting to the belief : "Higher the Better", each drum has its own story to tell. 5th bass, being the heaviest, lowest and biggest drum in the drumline is often considered the "Heartbeat" of the band. Although this bass do not get as many notes as other drums do, its note placement is crucial to the band itself. These notes are generally on the Downbeats and especially important in parade bands. 4th bass, a slightly smaller drum play a role similar to the 5th bass, but it also have some spit notes. 3rd bass is generally the mid-toned drum, it has more notes then both 4th and 5th drums. Its split notes are usually the mid-point of a bass split. 2nd bass, a drum with note placements extremely difficult. It almost never have notes on the downbeats but rather the E and A. This the has the most difficult placement as it acts as a bridge between splits. 1st bass, the easiest to march in a bass line, with mostly downbeat splits, has the hardest notes to play with. The notes written for this bass is extrememly similar to those of a snare drum. Being high tension, this drum is the easiest to roll on, therefore more parts. A player requires very good rudimental skills to master this drum.
Besides the basic hit on the head of a drum, there are other sounds a player can create. First, the rim click: a player simply play on the rims of a drum with the shaft of a stick. Second, a player can actually "gock" or rim-shot a bass drum. Although this is not often practiced, a player may hit the drum and the rim at the same time to create a high-pitched sound. This is usually done by the highest pitched bass drum in the line.
Audio samples
Template:Commons {{listen
| filename = Bass drum.ogg | title = Bass drum | description = Audio sample of an unmuffled bass drum from a drum kit, 54 KB
}}
External links
- Double Bass Drum Lessons
- Drum Tabs
- More Drum Tabs
- Single and Double Bass Drumming Method DVD Video
- Interesting development in combining two actions in one bass-drum pedalda:Stortromme
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