George Kollias - NILE

[Lmkt]

Un petit UP car je viens de trouver un post de lui assez intéressant sur son forum. Pas grand chose de nouveau mais toujours utile !

Well, i agree there is confusion on the "motion" and "technique" thing for sure. Let me explain but i definitely need to do a video so you can see. In my DVD there are details but i will try to one for the public so everyone can see.


ABOUT TECHNIQUES:

Heel Down,
I am pretty sure everyone gets this. Heel down is an older technique coming from the early jazz players and the main reason they used to play heel down is cause they were standing up while playing. The angle of the leg (while standing up) allows your muscles to gain control and move fast as well.

Heel Up,
More solid and powerful motion, it allows you to sit lower and use every muscle of your leg plus gain maximum control and dynamics. Most drummers play heel up for the last 40 years or so, since drum set up is changing techniques are changing too. Don’t get confused with all the info online about techniques, if your ankle is not stuck on the footboard you are playing heel up…The only difference is the angle and height you keep your ankle, same thing though.

Heel/Toe,
A special technique which actually applies the Moeller technique on the pedal using the upstroke as well. Most times you might need special pedal settings, still you need to be a heel up player to go with it. Some drummers using it in order to go super fast, but I know you can go the same fast with regular Heel Up/Ankle motion.

MOTIONS:

Full Leg Motion,
This is the main heel up motion, rock/metal drummers back in the days -and till now as well- were using the whole leg to gain more power (no ankle use).Great control and power back it lacks on speed, imagine yourself playing a fast single stroke roll without using your wrists...At slow speeds you get 100% control, on high speeds you only push and never works.

Ankle Motion,
This is still Heel Up, it just makes more sense than the Full Leg Motion cause you break that Heel Up limit. The difference is, you can still get the benefits of Full Leg Heel Up but you can also use your ankle/toe to gain more speed. It's exactly the same thing that happens in your hands, the faster you go the lowest your hands stay in order to play faster.

Swivel Motion,
It's a motion that allows you to move your foot from left to right (or vise versa) while playing the pedal at the same time. Sometimes affects your balance, gaining better control. This is something that many people were doing in the past, the problem is most of them had no idea how to explain it. The bigger problem is today where drummers that have a wrong idea explain it wrong....total non sense and definitely not a big deal…The truth is: Swivel doesn’t makes you faster, it can help your balance IF you know how to use it.

Tweaking Motion,
That would be accidental Swivel motion (means not doing it in purpose), nothing to do with Swivel Motion although might look like it. Swivel motion caused so many arguments online from people that had no idea what the hell swivel is, i hope this clears up the idea you might had about it.

Flatfoot Motion,
Means Full Leg Motion, no difference.

Double Strokes (the new thing),
Two kinds of double strokes. The Double Strokes like we all know (which are caused from clean Heel/Toe playing) and the Buzz Roll (Rebound of the beater). In Death Metal i see so much buzz rolls that's insane, i guess cause people really wanna play fast in a shorter period. Still, nothing wrong with that, especially when some of the greatest drummers are using it too as a part of their technique, so the purpose means a lot...


ANKLE MOTION DIFFERENCES:

Right here, some people playing double bass using the ankle and some their toes, it looks the same but the feel is totally different. If you play with your ankles you are actually playing backwards, which i find pretty weird but for some drummers works. These drummers usually can go to a certain speed and that's it. The other way is using your toe (lead with your toe) which at the same time you are using all your muscles and joints. I feel it makes more sense if you are leading with your toes (but still using every muscle and joint), same thing like your hand.

MY TECHNIQUE:

I use Heel Up since i first played drums. After years of practice and research though, i analyzed my motion and saw the differences depending the tempo I was playing. The slower i go the more legs i use, the faster i go the more ankles. It makes sense it's it's THE ONLY WAY TO PLAY FAST, this is it. Simple to understand, not so hard to achieve.
I lead with my toes, this is where every stroke comes from like i do with my hand, i use the front of my palm to force the stick go down. But still my ankles and every muscle works TOGETHER to make this happen, same with hands right? This is what i did back in the days, even though my favourite drummers where playing the traditional heel up (with locked ankles) i wanted to pass/develop my hand technique on my foot as well so what i did was simple: I got all my muscles involved there and the results where as expected.

THE 16-WEEK SPEED & CONTROL WORKOUT:

I made this program in order to get all these different motion levels into one, as much as it can get. By achieving something like this, you can pass the critical zones where motion changes (100bpm or 180bpm) easily without mess up your playing. Means, you allowed to move up and down with no problem plus play EVERY tempo with no problem. With this program you gain so much more control it’s not even funny…still, it is about MOTION, not speed…Whoever gets involved with this please understand WHY you do this.
We all know and heard, “I can play with ankles but I can’t play slow anymore” OR “I can nail 170bpm but I never passed that tempo”…Means, you use separate motion, this is all. This program will solve these issues, cause it will FIX your motion, this is what’s all about and this is what –I think- matters on double bass drumming anyways….


TIPS:

Swinging the Pedal,
There are spots and settings on the pedal that you get more control or speed out of it, of course. You all know the “sweet spot”, this is actually the spot that you can balance the rebound of the pedal, great for triplets/slights etc. Usually that’s in the middle of the board, the pedal gains some weight and attack without forcing the beater to stay on the head so you get a very quick response that allows you to play super fast double or triple strokes.

Spring Tension,
The tightest it is the faster response??? Or the tightest it is the hard to push down??? Both…
Tight springs will benefit your balance more than the response of the beater. For heel up/ankle players, will basically keep your feet up there without beater bury into head. THIS is why I have tight springs.

Beater Height and Distance from the Head,
Metal drummers think the lowest the beater is and closest to the head the faster you can play. Big mistake…mathematically it might makes sense cause everything is closer and lighter but gets all the feel from the drummer away and it limits your technique. There are basic rules on foot technique, what we call Feel and Swing of the pedal that cannot be achieved with those settings. Still, every drummer (of course) has his own settings.

Beater Weight,
This has to do with the Height and Distance 100%, you need to find the perfect spot that combines all 3. What I do is:
-Have a medium weight beater for more attack,
-Have it all the way up to gain more weight (better swing)
-Have a big distance from the head so I can control and swing the beater.
It’s really a combination of all 3, and for my opinion…these settings are even more important than the pedal you have. THIS IS the key.


DOUBLE BASS BOOKS/VIDEOS:

I know there are many out there, I have many myself too.
Having said that, get tips and advices from Drummers that actually ACHIEVED the level you are going for… It’s so funny everybody has an opinion and likes to share and usually it’s wrong, while at the same time the ones that doing it right never open their cards….you know what I mean?
DO NOT LISTEN EVERYTHING IT’S OUT THERE, most of it is total bullshit.....

[Rolala]

Happy Birthday George
Un jour de retard mais bon, les dates et moi

[robin]

33 ans !

ça va être marrant de suivre l'évolution de ces batteurs extrêmes ..
y a un moment où je suppose l'âge ne permet plus de jouer du Nile.
cela dit avec une hygiène de vie adaptée il y a sûrement moyen de durer

[Neant Distordu]

33 ans !

ça va être marrant de suivre l'évolution de ces batteurs extrêmes ..
y a un moment où je suppose l'âge ne permet plus de jouer du Nile.
cela dit avec une hygiène de vie adaptée il y a sûrement moyen de durer

Kollias va durer longtemps je pense vu sa technique ca doit pas être le genre de gars à se laisser aller niveau entrainement

[HannibAlan]

Seconde partie + intéressante : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bKZ9NYh5MM

[AEnima]

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Nouvelle vidéo (projet solo ?) bien sympa !

[HannibAlan]

J'aime toujours autant Kollias, c'est très propre, mais là le morceau reste je trouve musicalement déjà entendu, convenu. Très propre, très bien interprété tout ça, mais ça ne m'emballe au final pas plus que ça. (bon et pi beurk le trigg, mais c'est un autre problème)

[Rolala]

Je suis d'accord que ses projets solo...Depuis aeon of burning galaxie c'est de la réédition de réédition..; Par contre le trigg

[MetalFarther]

George est sur le point de vivre de sa musique:

[Ukko]

Enfin de la vraie musique.

[pento]

Enfin de la vraie musique.

second degré quand tu nous tiens

[MetalFarther]

Il fallait déjà saisir le second degré de la vidéo elle-même.

[pento]

Mince je trouvai que ça fonctionnait bien moi Kollias avec elton

[MetalFarther]

Pas terrible le son de la batterie

[Rolala]

Mouarf t'es fou, elle arrache tout

Je me demande de quoi va parler ce dvd, George a un peu tout dit dans le premier déjà. Il avait dit un moment sur son forum que celui-ci serait exclusivement axé sur les "licks and phrasing" mais vu le trailer...