Practicing without a kit?

W

Wysteriant

Junior Member
Ok, so a bit of backround. I'm 14 and took up lessons around 4 or 5 months ago i believe? Im taking my grade 1 really soon. The only problem is I dont actually have a drumkit. I have a practice pad and a few pairs of sticks. I practice on it for maybe 20 minutes a day and im in the school band (not like the bands american schools have, i mean a small cover band that the teacher set up for assemblies and battleofthebands etc.) so that makes up for maybe 2 hours of practice a week, counting lessons.

It is my birthday soon and i really want an electric kit although my parents keep saying I might get it christmas instead which i hope is them just joking because waiting another year for a kit, especially with my music GCSEs coming up (GCSEs are 2 year courses we take in england for certain subjects that end with exams which we get grades for when we leave school for anyone who doesnt know) would kill me.

I know alot of people are in my position; taking lessons without a kit to practice on. Im lucky the music teachers allow free use of practice rooms but I was wondering if anyone on here could reccomend any good excercises that can be done on a practice pad to improve while I wait for a kit of my own? There is alot of information online but its hard to get a straight answer since there are soooo many sources.
 
There are practice setups that have multiple pads, to represent the different surfaces of a kit(hats, toms) , even the bass drum.

You can also innovate with more than one practice or surface. One in front of you for snare, one on a stool at right level beside you for the floor tom...etc. You can at least get some patterns going. Getting a bass drum pedal/pad is another matter.
 
opentune said:
There are practice setups that have multiple pads, to represent the different surfaces of a kit(hats, toms) , even the bass drum.

You can also innovate with more than one practice or surface. One in front of you for snare, one on a stool at right level beside you for the floor tom...etc. You can at least get some patterns going. Getting a bass drum pedal/pad is another matter.
Click to expand...

+1. There's a lot of options from a multi surface practice pad + a kick tower (or even DIY solutions) to full practice pad kits like the DW one.
 
The suggestions that allready have been made could help you a lot..

On a slightly different note, practicing drums in my opinion is not only about having sticks in your hands and hit something, but you can also practice a lot mentally..

Someone like Stef Broks (very ok Metal drummer from my country) also practices mostly all his drum parts first a few weeks in his mind, before touching a stick to play them..
 
How about a Cajon kit or something similar. If you can snag some cheap hardware off ebay etc then you make up a Cajon and bass pedal for a kick, a snare from an unloved piccolo snare or all-wooden snare and a hi-hat stand and a couple of splashes and you're in.

This is my set-up this weekend. Ignore all the shiny bits, it's pretty simple.
Plus you get to be very creative and can do cafe/street gigs ...
 

Attachments

  • K2.jpg
    K2.jpg
    118.4 KB · Views: 99
I think the OP was talking about exercises rather than gear/set up?

Btw, Davo-London, how do you go about choosing a cajon that is strong enough to take a bass drum pedal? I'm looking at converting a floor tom to bass drum, but maybe the cajon option would be easier/cheaper?
 
Oops you're right. Apologies.

Start again. If you sit on a bed or stool, knees bent at 90 degrees with hands on thighs. Then you can try every combination going of RH, RF, LH, LF in a whole manner of patterns. RH RF RH RF ... RF RH RF RH ... THEN UNISON RHRF RHRF RHRF

and keep going. Unison is quite challenging. Nothing done at speed all nice and slow. There must be an infinite number of combinations. When you find one that's tricky. Practice it to smithereens then move on ...

Cheers
Davo
 
Wysteriant said:
I was wondering if anyone on here could reccomend any good excercises that can be done on a practice pad to improve while I wait for a kit of my own?
Click to expand...

You are likely already practicing rudiments on the practice pad. That's good.

I would learn different styles - the rumba, straight 8 beat, 16 beat, funk, garage band, rockabilly, country and country swing. You might use a cardboard box or sauce pan so you can get more than one sound.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top