Almost totally clueless newbie

The tunable Remo pads are among the loudest of the pads available. This is a good thing in most daytime applications, and why drum teachers prefer rimmed remos for their lesson kits.

If you have an extra bar towel/ hand towel laying around, you can drape it over the Remo pad. Tuck it in around the rim, and now you have a pad for quiter times of day. A thin towel won't ruin the response, and you can really hear the articulation when you hit rimshots correctly with the towel over it.

criz p. critter said:
My best piece of advice is: when you get that cymbal (or better yet, hihats)
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Yessir. If I was starting from just a snare drum, it would be super tempting to first get hi hats instead of a little crash/ride cymbal. The only thing that would make me get the CR cymbal first is if hats + stand was way too expensive.

But @Twiggy it's likely that if you ever try out a hat/snare combo you won't look back. So many cool things you can do with that combination.
 
I've been using a mouse pad for the time being, and it works fine technically. Only there's a little annoying thing that it likes to move, so every now and then I need to fix that, when it moves to far out of place.

I've already found out how I like to hold sticks - Match grip, American. Works for me.
 
A mouse pad is a good idea! Maybe tape it down in the corners underneath?

👇Probably not everybody needs one of these but I use mine a lot. Depending on how much daily shedding you plan on doing. There are enough real world opportunities to use it when I wouldn't use a table top pad or sit down on a drum throne.
Not all knee pads are the same. I've tried a couple of them. The one from Ahead (pictured) is very durable and heavy and has pretty smooth stick feel. The one from Gibraltar is lighter and maybe more comfortable but has a cheaper feeling attack and rebound, imo. There are others too.
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ColdFusion said:
A mouse pad is a good idea! Maybe tape it down in the corners underneath?

👇Probably not everybody needs one of these but I use mine a lot. Depending on how much daily shedding you plan on doing. There are enough real world opportunities to use it when I wouldn't use a table top pad or sit down on a drum throne.
Not all knee pads are the same. I've tried a couple of them. The one from Ahead (pictured) is very durable and heavy and has pretty smooth stick feel. The one from Gibraltar is lighter and maybe more comfortable but has a cheaper feeling attack and rebound, imo. There are others too.
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I have an Ahead pad that doesn’t strap to your knee, but it’s a solid little pad that I’ve had for years.

Twiggy, I have an ancient Remo practice pad kit which is great. It’s also very nasty looking. But the pads still work and I couldn’t care less about the looks.
 
Jeremy Bender said:
First off welcome to the best forum on the internet for all things drum related.

"I'm interested in picking up and learning slowly how to play the Snare drum, and maybe in the near future also getting a small cymbal to add."

I would say try to find a qualified teacher in your area if you can.
You can start off inexpensive (like many people have) with a set up like this to start the process of developing hand technique.

View attachment 119503View attachment 119505

Check out the Drummerworld videos there's tons of them, here's an example: https://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/rickdiorplayrelaxed.html

Best of luck and have fun with it all.
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This is what I started with. :)
 
Twiggy said:
As far as lessons go, of course if it were realistic for me, I would take lessons. However it just isn't. I'll just say that I am in my 20s, but due to disability reasons, I have a limited income at the moment (until I hopefully find another job soon, and who knows how long that will last?).

My only hope for lessons is if I could find a local teacher, willing to work for cheap.
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I don't know what your disability entails, but have you looked for percussion and drum groups in your city (e.g. marching, pipe band, Samba)? That might be a fun and cheap way to get to play actual drums and to get some advice on your playing.
There are lots of great teachers on here that do one-off online lessons, but if you can't afford any, I recommend the Mark Wessels book on snare drumming, because it's an actual method book and not just a collection of solos and exercises without any explanations.
Have fun with the pad - it's a good way to gauge how much you like drumming (and how much your neighbors hate it, which will inform your decision on buying drums later on)!
 
So,
I got that Remo practice pad in just now, and yes it was a little dirty, luckily the screws were very easy to remove,, and after that it came apart into two three pieces. (top, the head, and the bottom) I have the top and the head soaking in some soapy water now to loosen up the dirt and grime, and after that I will go over them with a brush to remove any thing stubborn or hard to reach.

The foam in the middle is easy to remove as it is not glued down, it just sits in place, but the little felt padding on the bottom is very dirty and it is also noticeably off center, but it is glued, so I will have to replace it later.
 
Twiggy said:
So,
I got that Remo practice pad in just now, and yes it was a little dirty, luckily the screws were very easy to remove,, and after that it came apart into two three pieces. (top, the head, and the bottom) I have the top and the head soaking in some soapy water now to loosen up the dirt and grime, and after that I will go over them with a brush to remove any thing stubborn or hard to reach.

The foam in the middle is easy to remove as it is not glued down, it just sits in place, but the little felt padding on the bottom is very dirty and it is also noticeably off center, but it is glued, so I will have to replace it later.
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man, I need to send my practice pads to you for detailing!!!
 
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
man, I need to send my practice pads to you for detailing!!!
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Lol, thank you.

I am going to post a before and after, because once you see what it looked like before, you'll understand why I wanted to clean it up.

I got everything clean now, or as clean as it'll get at least. All that's left is the screws, which I have soaking inside a plastic bottle filled with apple cider vinegar, which I just shake up from time to time, gonna leave them in there for a few more hours, but after that I can finally screw everything all together.
 
Twiggy said:
Lol, thank you.

I am going to post a before and after, because once you see what it looked like before, you'll understand why I wanted to clean it up.

I got everything clean now, or as clean as it'll get at least. All that's left is the screws, which I have soaking inside a plastic bottle filled with apple cider vinegar, which I just shake up from time to time, gonna leave them in there for a few more hours, but after that I can finally screw everything all together.
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hell...screw the pads, I am just gonna send you my truck!!
 
Dont do this.
drummer nobody GIF


Nice teardown and service on the pad. Now hit it and practice. 👍😁
 
Just in case anyone is wondering, I have decided to hold off on the purchase of an actual drum for now, and am just practicing with the pad for now. When I feel like a drum would be of more use to me, I will buy one then.
 
Twiggy said:
Just in case anyone is wondering, I have decided to hold off on the purchase of an actual drum for now, and am just practicing with the pad for now. When I feel like a drum would be of more use to me, I will buy one then.
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Sounds like a good plan. :)
 
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