100% Ian. I’ll check out your channel now 👍

Of course! I’m on tour at the mo, but will be back making videos around Christmas and will have a look at the drum parts of that song for you.

Hi Jonny, thanks for the kind words mate. If you check the “exclusive sponsor library” I have put all of the sheet music under each video. When I’m at my cpu, I’ll send you a link. 👍

Mate that room looks f***ing amazing. I’ve got a cellar which I am planning on doing a similar thing with at some point but COVID has put an end to that for the time being as it has absolutely destroyed my income. Kit looks great too Ian!

Hi Ryan, i totally understand what you are saying. I too have recently adopted the double kick and have been working my socks off trying to reach a level of control and fluency that I see in other double pedal players. From my experience so far, I have found that the level of progress for me personally has felt slower than it is in reality. When I started, playing singles at 100bpm was a struggle. ironically most of the tension was coming from my right foot trying to work way too hard to compensate for my weak left foot and i would always feel that ache in my right shin. I would be constantly be adjusting my seating position, moving my foot to different parts of the pedal etc.. For me there has been no quick fix. Not that I am at a high level at this by any means, but I have noticed significant progress by playing along with a metronome (16th note singles) at a moderately challenging tempo for 10 mins at a time. Throughout that 10 mins, I will be making micro adjustments to the point where I am seeking a level of comfort or lack of tension. It always starts off a bit rough, but I settle into it. This has helped me discover the sitting/foot position that works for me. Eventually the tempo I started out out would feel like a breeze and I could then increase the speed by 5-10bpm and repeat the process. If i had to bullet point a few tips they would be: keep your knees slightly behind your heels focus on lifting your heels rather than forcing you toes down practice heel up and heel down techniques in 5-10 min runs practice short bursts of speed 8ths - 16ths practice triplets with your feet over a 1/4 note pulse with your hand to get used to your left foot landing on the down beat. I hope some of this helps buddy. I am in the same boat as you. As I mentioned earlier, I used to struggle maintaining 16ths at 100bpm, I now play for 10 mins straight at 135/140bpm. Not amazing, but an encouraging improvement from where I started.

Done.

First of all Ian, great picture! Ironically I am saving up for a Roland kit. I’ve been looking at the VAD series so I can actually practice in my home rather than driving to the studio every time. Regarding your drum kit decision, I’ve always been partial to Ludwig over Mapex, nothing to do with build quality, it’s the fact that a lot of my favourite drummers used Ludwig kits and I have never played a Ludwig kit that I didn’t enjoy playing. I always enjoy the researching part of making a big purchase, I would recommend checking out video reviews of the kits you like on YouTube, it always helps to see the kit being played rather than reading reviews. I would love to know which one you go for. You’ve got a nice budget so I’m sure whatever you get it will sound great! Be sure to send me a picture or video when you get it. Take care dude and happy hunting! Alex

Sorry Ian, I completely missed this post. Yeah, it’s a sad fact that there is very little money to be made on Spotify and YouTube etc unless you are bringing in ridiculous views/listens. It’s certainly not sustainable. For me, the majority of my income comes from teaching in my local schools and being sensible with what I earn in order to plan for the future.

Hello mate, I had the exact same problem. I have been practicing on the double kick pedal throughout lockdown and after several months of feeling the burning sensation, I’m finally starting to get to the point where it’s no where near as detrimental to my playing. My biggest tip that helped me was focussing on lifting my heels, rather than stomping on the pedal. I’m also working on the swivel technique to alternate muscle groups with each kick. At the end of the day, you will naturally learn to relax just by playing continuous singles with the feet. ... or at least that’s what I am discovering. Spring tension wise, mine is pretty much the same as you described, somewhere in the middle. I know that the guys that can play ridiculously fast nearly always have really high tension. I’ll be posting a lesson on here soon with my double kick progress and a breakdown of what I practice every time I jump on the kit. Thanks for posting, it’s always good to get some conversations going on here. Hope this helps man. Alex.

1. I’ll get those those t-shirts printed..... in 27 different colours! 😂🤣 2. That is awesome, I wish there were more people in the world like you, giving access to people to have a go a playing the drums. I often wonder how many potentially amazing drummers have never discovered their ability by not ever having access to a kit.

Hey Kirk, sorry for the late reply mate, your post must have slipped through my notification net lol. Thanks for taking the time to write to me, I am so glad to read that you are enjoying the content! To answer your question, you can find some of my previous projects on ITunes or Spotify. Look up either: Tarot Rats The Deadly Tremors Allies Ebsen I am auditioning for a new band next week, so hopefully there will be some more music coming in the near future. Best wishes. Alex

Hello and welcome back! I am so happy to read that you are enjoying the lessons. It has been a rather frustrating time over here too (you may have noticed some of the editing flaws in the samba lesson lol). Had to buy a new computer in the end. The Steve Gadd inspired lesson is a lot of fun, it’s the first lesson I’ve been able to record in the last 3-4 weeks. I’m just sitting down to edit a new one now, I’ve got a bit of catching up to do!

Thanks Ian, I am so glad it helped. I had a lot of fun (and frustration as you saw lol) putting this one together. This style is not my forte, but I have since kept it up and have really enjoyed the challenge! So, a big thank you to you for forcing me out of my comfort zone!

Cool track, I just a had a listen to it and it’s not that far from what we looked at in the video. The ride is playing a typical jazz pattern and the kick is playing on beat 1 and the ‘&’ of 2. I’ll do a quick breakdown of it when I get my cpu back again. 😉

Ha, it was while editing this that my Mac was dying and kept shutting down 😬, that bit probably should be edited out due to the swearing. It is however proper funny to watch back and serves as a realistic insight to what all drummers experience when practicing lol!

I’ve heard good things about them, but not tried them yet. If you get yourself a Code drumhead, let me know what you think.

Hello. That’s cool, I’ve not heard of Asba... are they a new drum company? Is it a standard 14 inch snare? If so I have always loved the Evans HD dry drumhead. It’s got these little holes around the edge. I’m not sure what they do exactly, but I can always get my snare to sound the way I like it with that head.

Yeah, give me a couple of weeks and I’ll put together a samba for beginners lesson for ya.

Hi Ian. What an awesome message to wake up to this morning! Thank you for your kind words mate. I hope you enjoy the exclusive lessons. Also, feel free to make any suggestions for future lessons here on the message board. Thanks again dude! Alex

Hey Brian, thanks for signing up mate. I am in the process of sorting out the sheet music for the latest YouTube lessons. Are there any in particular you are after? I’ve sorted them out for all of the sponsor lessons since the IMac had a small meltdown. I would be happy to rewrite any that you need now, before I eventually get them all back on the site.