A New Way to Develop Foot Speed - Drum Lesson 

These micro lessons are amazing and keep me so inspired. I started drumming at age 50, and I took lessons for over a year. I moved out of state about six months ago, so I am without a teacher. You’ve kept me inspired and going back to my kit to try new things and keep developing my vocabulary. I’m back in touch with my old teacher from Crest Hill, IL, and working on remote lessons. Thank you so much, Mike, for being like a life jacket that helped keep my head above water these past 6 very lonely months. I’ve been watching you for a couple of years now and will be here as long as you keep putting out content!

This is next level creativity. Genius.

Your foot chops are insane bro

Mike you are just simply phenomenal. Your breakdowns on each lesson is impeccable.

I absolutely LOVE that talking angle how the outside as well as the inside are perfectly exposed👌🏻 lighting compositions like this are notttt easy so well done man!

This video popped up in my feed and now I feel inspired to create some foot exercises to work on some of my own musical ideas. Thanks Mike!

That's another level dude, love it. Gonna try and switch to the slide technique and can I get more cleaner results. Heel toe has worked and not worked for me with my foot.

I'm thinking all that foot speed is due to that new"old" pedal! Hahaha. It's so sweet that it matches your kit too!

Paradiddles are fascinating indeed. I'm continually amazed at how this concept can be applied to various contexts. Thank you Mike.

YOUR OLD BAND?! The one that you toured with opening for all of those dope bands?! YESSSSS!!!! Finally!!!!

Substitutions are great. R and L can be anything (great example here) and it just changes everything. Another classic one in triplets is R = Rll, and L = rrL.

Absolutely fahanantastic as you say!!!! Just imagined the permutation possibilities and my brain went nuts!!! Salutes from Chile

I dig the reverb!🤘🎧

Hi Mike Another great lesson - a huge thanks from here. Your lesson this time reminds me enormously of a lesson I got in close combat many years ago, from one of the US-Marine close combat instructors (referred to here by his initials, BM). We spent a whole day on different ways in which the right and left hand could act, react and reason in different combat situations. When the day was over, we were asked how many techniques we had trained during the day - and the answers were diverse. According to BM, the answer was, 1 technique. In all the different combinations of what our hands did, there was only one form of legwork. And the legwork was the core lesson - the hands were just a mental focal point. We were subconsciously taught the legwork. What you have presented here reminds me enormously of this lesson from BM - and just shows me how brilliant your lessons are. So a very, very big thank you from here ❤❤

Oh boy am I LOVING that China on your kit. It fits in perfectly

I dig puzzles, too. Lately I’m playing a jazz waltz while playing the Stick Control stickings between the kick (R) and snare (L)…in triplets. 😎

Man, you're getting smoother in your playing, and your on camera personality 👍

Love the new look in your lounge shots! ✔️🖤

I will definitely try this! Thank You so much, Mike!

Doing the stick control with your left hand speed lesson you did couple weeks, no time to switch to some feet. And like the new micing and that china defently sweeeeet

I needed so much this lesson! Thanks Mike

Awesome lesson Mike!!!

Nice variations to keep me busy!!

creative as hell !!!!!!

I think you just activated BEAST MODE!

Mike, you enthusiasm for everything is contagious! Be it a new piece of gear, a new pattern, the renovation of your studio or waking up at 4:30 in the morning. I guess it is a matcha thing :P. Thanks for the motivation and the lessons. Hope you and Amber are doing fine.

Thanks Mike 😊👍

great lesson!

Awesome lesson. I liked how you played quarter notes with your left foot at the end. That adds a level of complexity which will also prove to be helpful in other contexts. Well done.

That was the best news for me all day when you said there will be some new Simon Says!!!! ❤

Brilliant! Perfect timing for what I'm working on. 200 bpm may be a few years off but this'll make the journey more fun. Btw, this is Greg W from the Sessions. Great stuff, Mike!

Great lesson! Wow! Never thought like this! Gives the fun back to the daily workout!!!!

This also keeps you at lower BPM, which I think really helps to clean things up. Fantastic free content. Thank you.

Magic content. Your handsomness seems to be increasing with your drumming ability. Added inspo to practice.

Butter the biscuits and unbox the Triscuits Mike uploaded a new lesson 👐

Another great lesson Mike. I’m liking the combining the paradiddles in exercise too.

Nice work

Great exercise Mike

Ha! I have been doing this for the exact same reasons Mike! Also, this variation is fun: RKL RKL but some R-L's are accents and some are not. And because the R-L's are first/ third triplet partials, you can create rhythmic accent patterns within the note groupings by accenting/ not accenting some of the notes. Hope to make it to a camp one day, I'm like 15 minutes away. Happy Drumming!

Awesome exercise just did it, got to 88bpm. I love stuff like this

What a great idea Mike! Like you, I get bored easy, but this adds another layer of complexity to keep my mind engaged. I look forward to employing this in my practice as I have been working an fills using kkRLRL and KKRL in various combinations and and subdivisions around the kit. So this will just add a little more zing to that. Tanks Mike, great lesson.

This is actually awesome Mike. It also sounds good at goal tempo, bonus. Thanks

Thanks, Mike, your lessons are inspiring, and are great to take to the kit. One thing I work on everyday, is placing the kick in between notes, ie, snare, kick, tom (or varying combinations), that, for me, is more difficult than placing the kick at the end, ie, snare, tom, kick (or, other combinations). I don't know if it was a promo thing for Meinl (I love their cymbals), or an idiosyncratic thing about the logos, but it made me laugh, I turn my logos to the side, to avoid hitting them. Drummers are abit like tennis players, with funny little traits. Cheers.

Ewww I like this! 🤘🏼😈🤘🏼 Simon Says reunion? Are you serious right now? That’s freaking EPIC Mike

exercicio matador! muito bom.

luvit!

Gracias

I fully expected you to freak out that your metronome was on 3 while you were talking for a little bit LOL

Thanks!👏👏👏

uiii nice lesson and China!!! ❤😊

Awesome lesson Mike!! foot speed has always been something i super super struggle with, along with having ADHD (which leads to very easy boredom of doing the same thing over and over) so this is perfect for someone like me. Quick question though, what drum heads are you using on this kit at the moment?! Kit sounds fantastic!

Hi Mike! Loved this lesson as always! I'm wondering what the chain sizzler on you crash is?

WHAT! Your getting the band back together?! HECK YEAH!

groove scribe is awesome!

Nom nom! Tasty stuff, Mr. J! Thanks!

Trying this out now!!! A similar thing is actually one of my favorite fills. The accents are the same but only one Kick. So - RlK rLK RlK rLK :) I think I actually learned that from you, lol! Also, LOVE the sound. Sounds so amazing, even through my laptop speakers. ;)

Another great way to get in repetitions without getting bored is to practice while doing something else like watching RU-vid, TV, movies, etc. One of my favorite videos on this topic is by Guitarmastery called 'TV Practice %&! Rules' where he talks about how to do it correctly instead of just mindlessly noodling while watching TV and thinking that will help you improve.

Nice Daytona, Mike

This is a great exercise. One could start with 16 notes at slow tempo and then "speed up" by switching to triplets for few bars, then back... Buddy Rich would probably recommend taking the spring off your pedal 🤔. 200 BPM is pretty impressive, many use double pedal for this.

Beast mode unlocked! This is a such a great lesson (honestly never seen anything but great lessons from you) When you said shins hurting I thought you were going to pull an old Buddy Rich trick "take the spring off the pedal and work". LOL. So when do we hear about this china you've added?

Thank you for this. So many possibilities! I struggle with the 2nd bass drum stroke having equal dynamic as the first stroke. Would your solution be to try exaggerating/accenting that stroke and building up speed, or maybe investigate a different technique? I find I press with double stroke rolls, and not sure if this is hindering my flow, dynamic and speed. Be great to hear from you (all).

Good very good

My problem with RLKK has never been the speed. For years I've had a pretty fast kick double but that first hit is just always lighter than the first and makes it sound uneven and drives me CRAZY.

Dear Mike! Great Video again. Love it! One thing that I personally miss in this cool clip is an explanation of your foot technique itself. So how do you play these fast doubles? Maybe that could be something for a upcoming video? Cheers and keep on this really great work!

I just have a question. Why you should to record OH mic in mono. (That audio technica mic sound really good too)

Like the Chiiiina!

Personally I loved the reverb. lol

remember watching this channel a decade ago seeing you live on the clinic with Matt and JP. so sick to see you still making these.

Heres to day 1 of getting to goal tempo 😁 Edit: day 10: fastest-cleanest tempo rn is 125. This will take some time lol

Sir, what's your pedal tension?

Hi Mike love from Missouri. I have 3 points I want to address to you. #1. That kit sounds SICK lol. #2. Love the ol school converse look your going with lol. Lastly, I see your incorporating a heel to toe kinda approach on ur bass pedal. Is it helpful in faster tempo applications? Thanks.

"Stick Control" J.Chapin. just got it. how did you, do you work it out?

AND hi-hats on 1 2 3 4....

..❤

The old bait & switch eh? Was expecting to see a bass drum workout featuring the janky looking Gretsch pedal from the thumbnail pic with the ancient leather strap that looks like it will disintegrate any second.

Damn! Don't scare us like that - I thought my player was set to 1.5x speed in the intro!

Out of curiosity, why no double pedal? Especially if you get bored.

I simply cant get my foot up to speed at all,, lol.

Drums sound Fat, Mike!!!! New mics on the toms and snare?

I love the idea and your content in general, but man this just stressed me out even more lol. I've been playing for 15 years and I can't get my foot that fast. I just don't have the time and the space to practice as much as I need to right now. Regardless, I'll give this theory a shot and see what happens.

I LIKE reverb!