Getting ready for this Friday's Spark in the Dark I've modified my rhythm stage setup to support a new way of doing more things at once. I have four velocity-sensitive pedals, which I initially used for drums. Then I added bass as an option, and then year ago I got them set up for drums and bass at the same time. I've ended up using this a lot to accompany mandolin playing: I really like adding bass, especially rocking octaves, but I almost always still want the kick drum.

The biggest problem was that I wanted more chords: choosing between I IV V for major tunes, i bVII vVI for minor, and I bVII V for mixolydian was very limiting. I also noticed that I was almost never using the snare (left toes) in this mode, just the kick (left heel). Let's reallocate the left toe pedal from drums to bass: one pedal for kick and three for bass.

You might think that three pedals would mean three choices, but I chord them. The idea is, in addition to hitting each pedal on its own I can hit two pedals at once.

When playing in major the main options I want, in order, are I, IV, V, vi, ii, iii. Choosing easier patterns for the ones I expect to use more often:

Right heel	I
Right toe	IV
Right foot	V
Left toe	vi
Both toes	ii
Left toe, right heel	iii

This looks like:

It would be possible to use this for minor and mixolydian as well: set it in the key of the relative major (C for Am or Gmix). This is what I do when using all four pedals for bass, but I'm less sure it's the right option here when I have fewer pedals and some of the combinations are pretty awkward. I'll play around with this, but for now I've also put in a second pattern that I can select live (with a choice between mixolydian and minor):

	Mixolydian	Minor
Right heel	I	i
Right toe	bVII	bVII
Right foot	bVII	bVII
Left toe	V	V
Both toes	III	III
Left toe, right heel	IV	IV

Note that this is slightly different options, in addition to being different footings:

	Mixolydian	Relative Major
Right heel	I	V
Right toe	bVII	IV
Right foot	bVII	III
Left toe	V	II
Both toes	III	bVII
Left toe, right heel	IV	I

And:

	Minor	Relative Major
Right heel	i	vi
Right toe	bVII	V
Right foot	bVII	IV
Left toe	V	III
Both toes	III	I
Left toe, right heel	IV	II

This is a lot to keep in my head; I'll know more about what I like after I've played with it enough that it starts coming out naturally.

Here's a very rough example of playing around with it:

Comment via: facebook, mastodon