What is the best kind of practice? There are so many different ways that you can practice the drums, and all apply to double bass drumming. Then again you can spend the next 50 years on something and still never completely master everything. It seems to me that practicing the basics are always essential, but then again, Ill take luck over skill any day. It is not uncommon for certain people to have better body and muscle structure than others which cause an unfair advantage in different areas. (unfair because I am neither short nor tall, average can be annoying at times:)) Anything can be learned by muscle memory but as in much of life, certain things come more naturally to other people. Nothing has ever come natural for me with drums,so crossing whatever works with basics, how can you go wrong? Double bass is basically opening up your feet to play like your hands do, so you can accomplish several beats and combinations you never would have been able to. Practicing off the set is good, but real life practice is the best? Cannot really say, what works for you? I often believe that some people are just more gifted, Neil Peart from Rush was self taught, Buddy Rich said he never practiced, he just played, so it seems that words are the biggest constraint. Do what works and call it what you want, as long as you are having fun and achieve what you are trying to than it doesn't matter. Double bass must be practiced to sound good and tight, I am still very sloppy with certain patterns and have spent a significant amount of time trying to perfect. If the basics were done right I shouldn't have that problem, so practice can make you worse, so don't practice the wrong things over and over again. Ha ha! Coming from experience, make sure your pedals operate the same, if not you can be slowly building up the wrong muscles to fail you.
