Becoming a Jedi (Timing in the Bass Drum Line)

The tonal marching bass drum line is unique to the drum line in its challenges to the performer. After looking at the bass drum music, most band directors come to realize the biggest challenge this section faces is playing a moving line where each pitch has been split between several performers. In my last post, I talked briefly of the importance of playing with the feet and how the feet need to be the primary motivating factors in rhythmic integrity. This can become even more difficult if the melody has been split between performers. This post will aim to give instructors more tools in teaching the bass line to play with rhythmic integrity in relationship to their feet and the rest of the ensemble.

If you look in the “Free Materials” section of this website, you will find a Basic Strokes exercise. The bass drum music to this is one note per measure for a good reason. The first goal in successful splits is to create a unison pattern that promotes subdivision with the feet while promoting confidence through the use of unisons. This exercise, known by some as “Jedi”, can teach the performer to quickly learn to use eighth note subdivision with the quarter note mark time in the feet. Not only can they learn this as an individual but they can learn each other’s rhythmic tendencies and begin to unify them. It adds a deeper layer of accountability to each performer. This is the reason a well tuned and muffled bass line is very important. The instructor and performers should both monitor the clarity of the unisons in order to promote rhythmic precision. If the performer cannot perform this exercise with consistent mark time, splits exercises should be avoided until this is accomplished. This exercise should be learned with the written sticking, then while only using one hand to achieve the entire exercise. 

Once familiarity of this exercise has been established, making the connection to splits exercises is an easy process. The first thing that should happen is to have each individual player play one measure of the exercise at the same time other players play other measures. More specifically, in a five man bass line, the top bass player should play measure one, the second player should play measure two, the third should play measure three, and so on. If they all play this immediately after the count off, you should have two counts ending with a down beat on count three. The rhythm heard should be straight eighth notes where each player only plays one note. This is the simplest single note split, and the basis of learning to split while relating rhythms to the performer’s foot timing. If you take the second half of the exercise and execute it in the same way, you will have a split that goes from the largest drum to the smallest. After putting these together, you have a full measure of splits down and then up the bass line. This full measure of splits is sometimes known as a “laser”. 

From here, you can take many avenues in developing more complicated splits. Typically, the next layer is to add sixteenth notes to the laser split. This can be done by adding a sixteenth note to the original unison exercise. From here, they can take the same process in adding the sixteenth note to the laser split. Another variation that can be very valuable is to add an eighth note to the original unison exercise. This promotes foot alignment to each individual beat. After these two, the imagination is the only limiting factor in creating more opportunities for split exercises. As with any exercise, dynamic variations should always be included to assure transfer into the musical materials of the show.

If the instructor can learn to start with unison rhythms that add comfort to the performer and gradually add layers that take the performer away from this comfort, the bass line can quickly learn how to be individually accountable for their notes in the line, while also listening to the line and knowing how to adapt to subtle rhythmic nuances that occur when playing with other imperfect performers. All instruction should always start from security and known information and develop into things that are less known. Foot timing, musical timing in the ensemble, and rhythmic accuracy are of the utmost importance in this exercise and should be closely monitored by the instructor.