Simultaneous Footbass and Footdrums

April 27th, 2023
jammer, music
For the past year or so I've had two options for my feet with my rhythm stage setup. I can play bass:

Or I can play drums:

But when I play mandolin I want both!

I tried a system where I play bass but whichever drum pedal I tap triggers a kick as well, which sort of works but I'm not good enough at playing a consistent rhythm while moving between pedals:

This almost works, but I couldn't get it to where I was happy with it.

Another thing I tried was pulling my hand away from the mandolin briefly to change the current bass note:

This works on that particular tune which isn't very notey and it happens that each time I want to change to a new bass note the melody asks for an open string, but it doesn't work in general.

A few days ago I got another idea: allocate the left two pedals to drums (kick and snare) and the right two pedals to bass. Since this gives me three options: right heel, right toe, and both together. Since three chords is (sort of) all you need, this offers an interesting balance. Currently I have it set so I can choose between major (I IV V), minor (i bVII bVI), and mixolydian (I bVII V).

I'm still getting it into my muscle memory, but here's how it sounds so far:

Referenced in:

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong, mastodon

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Book Review: The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory

Against the Internet

via Thing of Things April 25, 2025

Impact, agency, and taste

understand + work backwards from the root goal • don’t rely too much on permission or encouragement • make success inevitable • find your angle • think real hard • reflect on your thinking

via benkuhn.net April 19, 2025

Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

When I thought about this question it was really hard to figure out because the way it's phrased it's essentially either a chicken just pops into existence, or an egg just pops into existence, without any parent animals involved. I thought about t…

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts April 13, 2025

more     (via openring)