Hi everyone,
I’m back after a longer break, and I’ve been drumming like crazy since a couple days ago. No fingers already hurt, but i can see progress.
I’ve been wondering, is any of you into heavier music? Did any of you try learning some progressive rock stuff, for example? Maybe even metal?
I’ve been practicing Opeth’s Windowpane lately, and its coming together quite nicely, but that’s not really that heavy.
I have also scrambled together some drums for a metal project we’ve started with a friend, and it does sound ok, but took way too many tries, and was put together from multiple midi clips.
Playing fingerdrums Gojira-style seems way out of my reach yet, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Do you guys have any tips on practicing double bass drum patterns, fills, etc., for metal music?
One ‘hack’ I could think off is to actually switch kick drum and snare drum pads so you hit the kicks with your index and the snares with your thumbs. Thumbs are great for kicks normally, but they’re not the best for super fast rolls. That goes a lot better with other fingers.
If you have any questions, please let me know!
Yes this is great. If you ever make the video explaining your technique please share it here as well. I will redirect people who ask about this to this thread (until maybe one day I’ll make a course).
Here’s the video explaining the quad bass playing! So nice of you to help us out here Scott!!
Thanks Scott, thanks Robert! This will be very useful. I’m working atm, but I already started practicing on my desk. 
This looks very promising.
Definitely interested in metal drumming! Gotta get the basics down first, but I’m glad to see that I’m not the lone metalhead on the website! 
I know this is an old post, but probably better to post here to see if the folks that posted are still around. I’ve only just started finger drumming, but the metal is the main genre that I’m learning to play on guitar. Hoping to also improve my bass chops as well.
Perhaps learning 3 different instruments is a bit ambitious, but a few years back I’d never run more than about 15km and decided that later that year I was going to run a marathon and not any marathon, one with 1,500m elevation. My running buddies thought I was a bit nuts, but I made it as I was really keen to get there. I know it’s very different to music, but if the passion and drive is there, it might not be too much to do all 3. Guitar will probably continue to be my main instrument, but enjoying the variety and the wealth of additional enjoyment you can get out of listening to your favourite music. The amount of extra little bits you pick up listening for the different instruments is awesome and really helps appreciate music.
So I’m not into metal at all, but from what I know about finger drumming I do think it might need a little bit of a different approach sometimes. Using your thumbs to play super fast kick drums fro example might be hard. You probably want to use index fingers and even finger rolls (so index and middle finger alternating) to get those blast beats in 
But don’t take this as an absolute truth… I don’t know much about metal… this is just a hunch based on my finger drumming experience and knowing what it takes to play fast.
Thanks Rob. Not sure how far away I am from trying metal, but there are many different genres and not all are super fast. With Shootie School’s help, I programmed the intro to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” in the Grid Editor in EZDrummer 3. It’s mainly a 1/4 note kick drum with a 1/8 note floortom, then just mix in some other toms. The end of the first 4 bars ends with a snare and ride.
There are definitely some very fast parts that would be a lot more challenging to play and some genres have crazy fast double kick drums.
I think a bit like when playing bass, I’ll be happy with any genre as long as I’m playing music 