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Steve V. wrote:I'm not a drummer, but any drummer I know who doesn't play heel up is a crap drummer.

You don't know a lot of/about drummers/drumming do you.

bigc wrote:

ubercat wrote:I'm a so-so drummer, and I try to use both. Problem with up (for me) is my foot shifts all over fuck because I can't seem to figure out how to make a kit stationary. When I start with the pow pow pow and my heel leaves the floor I end up driving the kit around. Like I said, I'm a so-so drummer - I'm absolutely sure I'm doing something wrong.

Get a large piece of carpet, large enough for your throne and your kick, and put it under your whole kit. Take the rubber nubs off of the legs on your kcik drum and dig them into the carpet.

this seems to work ok depending on how you play, but for me the best solution is a 2x4 screwed into the end of the carpet that i set up on. the weight of your body on the throne keeps the entire kit anchored and is impossible to make it move out of place. i picked this up from the drummer of this bike is a pipe bomb long ago - and it's an elegant, very simple solution. much lighter to move around than a brick, and you don't need a 'meaty' carpet for your spurs to grab onto. you'll never have a suprise on any stage no matter what the surface is and it takes up very little room in the van. mine isn't even full width, just about as wide as the bass drum and goes back far enough to sit on. my hat and floor tom spill over onto whatever the stage is.

Peripatetic wrote:

Steve V. wrote:I'm not a drummer, but any drummer I know who doesn't play heel up is a crap drummer.

You don't know a lot of/about drummers/drumming do you.

I basically agreed with Steve V, though my experience has not been that heel down drummers are teh crap, but rather that better drummers Ive played with have tended to play heel up. Heel down has chiefly been the province of drummers with less experience behind the kit.

On a side note, I dont tend to have quiet parts in my songs, so perhaps there has been less room for good heel down playing. I dunno.

I'm gunna try the 2x4 attached to rug - seems like that would work, and I can just roll it up when I need to move it. Thanks. :)

The one time I tried to play, it was heel up, but that was mostly because the stool was adjusted to the height of a person much taller than I.

When I play guitar I keep time with my heel most often, which makes me think I would be a reasonably shitty drummer, at least as far as the kick is concerned.

Heel up. Socks or barefoot.

Didn't Dave Weckl have some brand of specially made 'drum shoes' a while back?

Heel is down. I'll keep it in the air for certain things, like doing the constant bass drum rhythm while playing on the toms (if that makes any sense).

I always play barefoot, although my bowling shoes work pretty well too.

Heel up, but I've seen some great drummers that play heel down, so there's that. These drummers are always playing gospel music. Is this a gospel thing, the heel down?
Spring is about 3/4, shoes have to be running shoes or things get all messed up.
Scott, I do that swivel thing on the hat too, as did the drummer from Blame Game, who is a total badass.
Ubercat, you might also make sure the front of the kick drum is a little bit off the ground/rug/floor, so that the spurs take the weight/force. I like everything to be on the rug, and my bands hate me for this, because I bring this stupid rug everywhere.

Heel the hell UP...

Heel up, usually barefoot.

It's been easier to engage and control my legs independently when I've got some weight off of them, so that has a big part in this - stool height for heel down feels lethargic to me.

I've had a difficult time finding a happy medium in stool height where I'm comfortable doing both heel up and down. It would be nice to be able to incorporate both. When I get low enough to play comfortably heel down I feel like I'm compromising my heel up playing.