Snare vs practice pad

Practice pads do allow your hands to learn how to control the stick when the pad has lots of bounce or minimal bounce. It helps train the muscles.
 
A happy medium I've found is using a computer mouse pad. They're made from neoprene rubber, yet due to their reduced thickness, they don't have the rebound that the gum rubber has on most pads.
It's not only a good way to work the muscles that pillow practice would do, but it's also a lot cheaper.
 
Yeah. They're all different. I have a bunch and sort of use them all depending.

I have:
Full kit of Super pads
Evans/HQ 12" rubber
Gretsch 12" rubber
Steve Smith Backstage
Reflexx
14" Moongel
P4 Petrillo pad
Brush-Up
14" Xymox
12" Remo
12" Billy Hyde
Several generic 8" rubber pads

HQ Soundoffs for when I travel but have to be quiet when waiting for students.

Wrestling mats and cork trivets also work well.

Just ask if you wonder about any particular one.
 
Can I offer a slightly contrary opinion to most of those offered here?

For years I only practiced on the kit. As an untrained drummer with frequent access to a full kit and sound-dampening rehearsal space, I just sat on the kit and muscled my way through learning, because I had the time/freedom to do so.

What I found out later was that by only using the full kit, I was actually hiding my technique behind big drum sounds. I was doing a lot of instinctive drags on the snare, and there was a lot of sloppy rebounding on the bass drum - but in the context of a full kit playing with a full band, the sound of those errors was minimized, and therefore forgivable.

It wasn't until I started recording in nice studios and attempting to play electronic kits that I realized how horrible my technique really was; close-miking and e-drum pads are almost humiliatingly unforgiving, and my sloppiness was amplified. I was horrified.

Around the same time, purchasing a practice pad was almost happenstance for me - I only got one because I felt I wasn't practicing enough in between tours, and living situations prohibited full drum volume. But I immediately realized, playing at that lower volume and hearing each individual strike without any ambient noise to mask them, that my poor technique was just as evident on the pad as it had been in the studio and on the e-kits (especially when practicing on the hard rubber side of the pad, where drags and ghost notes have to be extremely precise to sound right).

Nowadays I still practice on the pad during the week (quiet neighborhood) then hit the full kit for band practice on the weekends. The pad work has kept my hands in great shape - so much so that I fashioned a similar setup to use with my bass drum pedal, and that's helped my foot technique immensely. I find that while there is not - and can never be - a perfect translation between what I do on the pad versus what I do on the kit, there are certain fundamentals that can be exercised on a drum pad and absolutely have a positive effect on the kit playing (internalizing tempos, keeping even fills, noodling out complex parts, etc.).

TLDR: Plenty of work on the drum pad has undeniably improved my playing on a full kit.
 
Realistically, it is also hard to listen to a full volume real drum for all the hours it takes to get your snare drum chops together, even if you're the one playing it. If you'll practice more if you own a pad, you should get a pad.
That's me. I may be a drummer, but I can only take so much crash-bang-boom in a day. But if I sit down with a practice pad and some headphones, I can practice rudiments til the cows come home.
 
The pad is a supplement, not a substitute for the drum. Certainly this means doubly so for the drum set, where you're using all of your limbs, doing unison strikes, moving laterally, up and down to reach cymbals, different surfaces, etc.

BUT...when you're working on repetitive patterns such as rudiments or a new type of stroke, you're going to want to use a pad.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have about 20 different ones, including a brush pad and use them regularly, in addition to the set.
 
I agree that a pad with a click is very honest, no snare buzz, no overtones.. If your off, you'll know... You can hide behind the volume of a drumset
 
Yeah. They're all different. I have a bunch and sort of use them all depending.

I have:
Full kit of Super pads
Evans/HQ 12" rubber
Gretsch 12" rubber
Steve Smith Backstage
Reflexx
14" Moongel
P4 Petrillo pad
Brush-Up
14" Xymox
12" Remo
12" Billy Hyde
Several generic 8" rubber pads

HQ Soundoffs for when I travel but have to be quiet when waiting for students.

Wrestling mats and cork trivets also work well.

Just ask if you wonder about any particular one.

The super pad is great for building chops! I got a 10" and it gets a ton of use. It feels like a floor room. Also, I recently purchased 3/4" rubber tile mats to put under my drum set. It's on a hardwood floor and it opened up the lower end and pretty much EQ'd the set perfectly. I couldn't believe how much of a difference that made!

Which pad is your favorite?
 
Not much of a fan of rubber in general, but the Billy Hyde has the right feel for conditioning. They are good for finger stuff, though.

The nicest feeling one would be a 12" Super-Pad that I have on top of a Remo TSS. I have these mainly to have quiet version of my whole kit at home.

Lately I've been using the Xymox a lot. It's a diffeent feel when working on technique and etudes. It's very articulate.

At work I have to be quiet in the daytime so I have standard Remo.

Reflexx and Moongel are glorified pillows, sorta.
 
Drum is a drum, pad is a pad. Always use snare when possible.

But there's also a third alternative to use at home if you got a extra drum lying around. A drum with a mesh head tuned quite loose feels quite close to an actual drum and the rebound is much more "realistic" and its also quiet.

I have been using this method for last ten years and its proven very good. I have a 13"x11" power tom which I'm not using, I have the lower part of a cheap snare stand with a tom holder in it. Any time I sit at the computer watching something or get bored or lazy enough to not go to the rehearsal room, I play with this thing, tuned low the rebound is almost exactly like on my snare. Tuned higher it gets over the top.

The best thing for this might be a piccolo snare with a mesh head, wouldn't even take the space. Try it out if you got extra drum lying around, mesh heads are cheap and can take years before they break. :)
 
Really, your post title is just wrong -- it should say "Snare AND practice pad AND other stuff too" or "ONLY pad practice is a bad idea".

I always have my students learn technique on a pad. When you're not creating a loud snare drum sound, it's easier to focus on the movements of your sticks, and how your technique affects those movements. The exaggerated rebound of a pad is not a bad thing either. It forces you to notice, and (hopefully) control or utilize the rebound of the stick.

But the pad is just a learning tool. You should practice on a real snare as well. And on your hi-hats, toms, floor toms, cymbals, pillows, thighs, etc. Get a pad, a Wilcoxon book of snare solos, the Rudimental Logic and Great Hands for a Lifetime DVDs, and learn your rudiments already!
 
I was actually hiding my technique behind big drum sounds.
I find the opposite. I find with the pad I think I'm doing certain techniques and speeds well, but then when I try the same thing on the snare or kit, it can sound terrible or at least often very different to what I thought I was doing on the pad.
 
I don't really buy the argument you should play on different surfaces-maybe different kits and heads but I always compensate for whatever kit I'm playing pretty quickly-mine or anyone else. It is different hitting a pillow,wood, concrete, rubber or mylar. I only hit heads of mylar and where you hit them produces differences in sounds that when you play rudiments if one stick on center and the other off it won't sound even. I tend to play tight closed roles nearer edge and big open rolls nearer center-sounds different. I play rudiments on cymbals so that covers a different material. So cymbals and drum heads is my focus because where I hit them playing rudiments produces differences in sounds. It's the sound-the only reason I do rudiments with hands and feet is to play cleaner single, double triple stroke rolls and more dexterity with all limbs when I try to be creative. I guess if my background had been band and snare it would be different but from age 8 I always just played a drum kit. Never even tried a pad till an adult. It just seemed going backward from my perspective. But to each their own. I see no merit if all this time I'd been hitting a pad rather than my kit my progress would be any different. Some of the most popular and successful drummers have terrible technique-some may have just one limb so their technique is different to compensate-as likely most compensate for the anatomical-functional variations that humans display-we aren't all exactly the same. I've tried to address some of my misgivings technique wise but now at this point in my venture I'm working sound and taste. Which I've had a history of bad taste-and no amount of chop effort really helped that because, as I discovered, it has nothing to do with it. Ringo didn't have a chops bone in his body but he had good taste-same for Charlie Watts. You won't see a lot flash just good taste. Now I did get some chops for my effort but I still sucked taste wise. I want to sound better before I die more so than look good doing it (I think that boat sailed LOL).
 
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I use practice pads for repetitious drills, just so I don't annoy myself with the volume, and so playing the actual kit doesn't become tedious. It's okay if I get a bit bored or frustrated on the practice pad, but I want to avoid being bored or frustrated when I'm playing the kit.
 
I find the kit too distracting for doing rudimental practice. I'll work that stuff out on the pad.

I just cant imagine sitting there working on singles for 5 minutes on a snare. That would drive me crazy.
 
Nowadays most of my technique practice is done on a snare drum. My feet almost always play some sort of ostinato no matter what I’m working on. If I want lower volume or less rebound I do all my snare practice with brushes on a drum or table.
 
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Honestly, every drummer I've ever known with great hands has done LOTS of pad work. But, to each his own. Not everyone cares about chops and that's fine.
 
Get many practice pads. different materials and surfaces are great. not all snares and toms feel the same. I have 3 at my computer desk and use them all. prologix blue lighting is AMAZING, the moongel workout pad is a beast for developing wrist and power. If you want to crush rudiments on floor toms you NEED to work on that stuff.
 
IMHO, pads offer different features than drums but both are great. I have built my own practice pad that is quiet (and have a few proto types for sale). It is cloth with foam and offers a bounce but not as alive as a drum or rubber pad. It allows me to practice when I wake up before anyone else. Not sure if I am going to start selling them on Etsy or not, but the nice thing is I get a work out with them and my ears don't need protection. It is also my experience that using a practice pad should not be the sole practice surface. I will later work out on a pad then the drumset. So I use all three to obtain the most benefit.

As for the various surfaces and responses, I think playing on differing surfaces is good. My snares are all tensioned tighter than my floor toms which all have a different response than the cymbals or hihat. So generally, I agree with everything already said. :cool:
 
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