Kick Pedal Technique

Exploring Heel-Up-Heel-Down and Burying The Beater

by Dendy Jarrett

DON’T BE A HEEL

There is an age-old argument between drummers that is as two-camped as Democrat versus Republican or Mac versus PC — Heel Up or Heel Down?

The other argument is "bury the beater" or "don’t bury the beater." In many cases the two arguements go hand-in-hand. Many heel up players bury the beater and most heel down players don’t. Why is this the case? The heel up position is fighting gravity and tends to “force” the foot in the ‘bury’ position. While I realize that I'm making a generalization, this observation of heel-down  beater-up playing and heel-up beater-down playing has come from years of watching other players while being out on the road.

I'll start by making the statement that many instructors or authors may be afraid to say: There are no absolutes on this issue. I was taught heel down, but I know plenty of players who play heel up. That said — there are some truths that tend to make one slightly more advantageous over the other.

DO THE MATH

Well, the math as it relates to geometry or the theory of relativity. In computer-based music recording there's a term called latency which Craig Anderton defines as "the time that elapses between audio going into and coming out of a computer." The dictionary's more general definition is “the time that elapses between a stimulus and the response to it.”

For drumming, it's the time between when your brain sends the signal to strike and when you actually strike. This means that no matter whether you play heel up or heel down, there's a time delay between when your brain directs your muscles to hit the head, and when your foot actually ‘hits’ the head. It may be microseconds, but there is a delay. However if you play heel down and not beater buried, your foot has half the distance to travel to get to the head than if you play heel up and beater buried. This occurs because if you're playing heel up with the beater buried, your beater has to travel from the ‘struck’ position all the way back to the ‘strike’ position and then back to the ‘struck’ position again. The same even holds true if you play heel down and beater buried position.

Therefore, you are going to  have more challenges (scientifically speaking) with timekeeping with heel up than you will with heel down, especially if you are burying the beater in the head.

CHOKE IT DOWN

When you strike any membrane there is resonance. Laying your hand back on the membrane will choke the vibrations and resonance - it’s the same principle of choking your cymbal by grabbing it, or stopping a bell from ringing by grabbing it. And if you bury the beater of your bass drum pedal into a bass drum head that's trying to “sing” its resonance, you'll mute the vibrations and therefore choke the head's sound quality. To put it into simpler terms — you won't get the maximum sound quality out of the bass drum if you choke it down.

FEET LIKE HANDS

When I was being schooled in drumming, I was taught to think of the ankles like wrists, and was taught to do a lot of the same exercises that I was doing with my hands … with my feet. Much in the same vein, you wouldn’t play leaving your sticks buried in the head. (Unless a specific piece of music called for that effect.) You typically think in terms of stroke and rebound with your wrist, so try to think of that same concept with your feet. Sit on your drum throne and practice paradiddles with your feet: try it heel down, then try it heel up. You'll most likely find that as you develop this exercise, it's much easier to execute this with the heel down.

KEEP THE PEDAL TO THE METAL

As I said before, … there's no true absolute right or wrong way to approach the bass drum pedal. No one (to my knowledge) has ever created the “law” of bass drum pedal technique. There are however, these simple truths will guide you along the way, and hopefully help you decide which method works best for you. Experiment with it. Work it out! This debate won’t end here so in the meantime...keep the pedal to the metal!

Want to discuss this subject?

Burying The Beater:

http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Drum-Forum/Poll-Burying-the-beater/td-p/35960125

Heel Up or Heel Down?

http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Drum-Forum/Heel-up-or-Heel-down/td-p/6619466

Dendy Jarrett is the Editorial Director and Director of Communities for Harmony Central. He has been heavily involved at the executive level in many aspects of the drum and percussion industry for over 25 years and has been a professional player since he was 16. His articles and product reviews have been featured in InTune Monthly, Gig Magazine, DRUM! and Modern Drummer Magazines.