Practicing on an actual drum and not a pad.Дў. For me, the more time I was carving out of my schedule to dedicate to practice, the more I found myself prioritizing these items:ДЎ. If you want to be a serious player, you have to be serious about your practice. A Few More Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Practice вЂ“ For anyone вЂ“ contact your local music dealer and search their inventory for used drums, often they are only barely used. вЂ“ For those out of school вЂ“ eBay and Craigslist sometimes show individual drums for sale. вЂ“ For those in drumline or university band вЂ“ ask your band director to obtain a drum for you. Of course, access to a drum is not a reality for everyone, so here are three suggestions: DonвЂ™t show up to an audition having never drummed on a drum! You would not try out for quarterback having never thrown the ball. You would not show up to a race having not trained. How can you expect to develop your sense of hearing and the sound quality you get from your instrument if you never practice with it? Listening and hearing are two very different tasks (something weвЂ™ll cover in a future blog post), and as drummers, we often overlook their respective roles. Not only are you developing your chops and hands to be comfortable with, and acclimated to the pad, you are not growing your sense of listening and hearing вЂ“ skills that are all too often overlooked in drummers. However, if you are drumming on a pad ONLY, you are doing yourself a great disservice. When you are up at midnight, and you just need to get that last rep of swinging double triple in, a practice pad will be appreciated! Likewise, when you are on the bus to a show, getting the drums out and standing up may be a bit too difficult a task. Drum pads are excellent additions to your practice, and are to be used as such. With this in mind, I am by no means saying drum pads are not useful вЂ“ quite the contrary. As athletes, we know: how you practice is how you will perform. Standing up behind the drum helped me practice the posture I needed to have when performing. Hearing my sticks striking a drum head after being on a pad for so long was really alarming! My touch and sensitivity as a drummer grew tremendously when I was practicing on a drum rather than a pad.ДЈ. No matter how advanced the technology, the feel of a drum pad is different than an actual drum.Дў. I probably have three or four drum pads of my own! However, when I was actively marching and auditioning for drum corps, I found three things to be true of using a practice pad:ДЎ. In this post I will dive into the philosophy of why drumming on an actual drum вЂ“ and standing up as you practice вЂ“ will do wonders for your technique and approach to drumming.Дrum pads are all the rage. But did you know that using a pad as your only practice tool may actually be doing harm to your technique? Not only that, but you could be training your ears improperly too! As drummers, we know how easy and convenient it is to play on a practice pad all day.

How to make a drum pad