Comment by Rochus
5 days ago
The relevant issue is independent or coordinated control of concurrent musical parts, not whether those parts happen to use different instruments. Piano, Organ (with bass pedal) and drum-kit playing are canonical examples of the same underlying challenge. Skilled performance can require separately controlled fingers, hands, and feet, while the player experiences them as an integrated whole.
I started to play the drums with my feed on a bass pedal sixteen years ago and do the bass with my left hand. This worked naturally from day one (though I got better with more exercise). There is just not enough time to think about it, as the author suggests. Here is a recording where you can see it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJV0I7KgsJc, left guy). And here is a more recent solo recording: https://rochus-keller.ch/?p=1317, just one guy, all live, no overdupps.
[author]
This is fantastic! Do you have more videos of your foot-drumming? Or could you say more about how you do it? Are the pedals velocity-sensitive?
This is my setup: https://www.jefftk.com/p/making-a-pedalboard Four beaterless kick drum pedals. Another example in use https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcQLBfuaNqs
Not having tried it, I'd guess your setup is much more flexible, but requires much more work to provide a really steady beat on? And so would be a bit less well-suited to playing dance music (the main thing I do)?
Thanks. I have mostly audio recordings (and even MIDI files from all devices connected to the computer). There are a couple of videos and one short on my youtube account (https://www.youtube.com/@RochusKeller/videos) but thei're more than ten years old. In 2022 I switched to a Mac M1 mini with MainStage and the plugins I still use. This post includes information about the equipment: https://rochus-keller.ch/?p=1268. The bass pedal uses essentially the original drum assignment besides that I doubled the snare (on D and D#, to make rolls), and reorganized the toms to three and used the remaining upper keys for cymbals. The assignment never changes, just the kit. I have little idea about "how I do it"; it just works; and I think it got better over time by just playing. Just contact me via email if you have more questions ;-)
So cool! The YouTube short is helpful, though it's still a bit hard to see your full technique. If at some point you recorded another video focused on the feet I'd really enjoy being able to get a better sense of how your technique works in practice.
Changing the kit without the assignment seems very much the right way to do it. No need to confuse your muscle memory.
Would it be ok if I wrote a blog post about your approach here, based on what you've written and shown? The general idea of playing drums with the feet is massively unexplored, and while I'd considered using bass pedals this way I didn't anticipate it was possible to get them working this well (which is part of why I went in a different direction).
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Rochus, a huge thanks for the comment and discovering your fascinating site. I was blown away by how musical the recent Suno covers of your funk songs are. I would not have been able to guess that they were AI generated. Please post more videos in the future---I am convinced there is a large audience that would be interested in learning more about your setup and seeing you improvise.
Very kind, thanks. Suno is indeed a great technology and opens interesting possibilities for musicians. I consider posting more videos. Stay tuned.