You saved me a lot of typing. THIS ^^^^^My independent practice sessions (when I'm not accompanying other musicians) are split between the pad and kit. The pad keeps me conditioned, both for endurance and dynamic excellence, and it's where I challenge myself the most. On the kit, I primarily play backbeats to drumless tracks, cruising in the pocket and nurturing the groove. I do apply pad excersies to the kit at times, but I'm a country/rock/pop drummer. Backbeats occupy nintey-five percent of my music world. I don't devote inordinate time to the pursuit of chops I don't intend to use. My younger years were a different story, but I've learned to embrace pragmatism.
I'm curious how others spend their time playing on their sets as opposed to pad work...
Do you play along with recordings? Work on technique? Just thoughtlessly play? Work on studies or solos? Other?
Thanks.![]()
The pad has always been an itegral part of my routine, instilled in me by my instructor many years ago. I'm bound to it -- happily bound but bound nevertheless.You saved me a lot of typing. THIS ^^^^^
Only tweak for me is I leverage plenty of tracks with drums to play along with and I haven't touched a pad since 1996.
This.Backbeats occupy ninety-five percent of my music world. I don't devote inordinate effort to the pursuit of chops I don't intend to use. My younger years were a different story, but I've learned to embrace pragmatism.
I pick a song on Spotify and play along, then I try to play along with the next song it picks.
I'm a classic rock / hard rock guy so I'll pick a different genre of song to start with. Last night I picked Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight and the Pips which brought up lots of Motown classics which can be a good challenge for me. Barry White, wow that hi hat pedal gets a lot of work.
Besides, Midnight Train to Georgia has a bunch of spots near the end where I can work on different fills and is a really groovy tune so I get right into it.
LOVE that album!I do this stuff— scroll through everything there is to practice there. Usually today I play along with loops I sampled from from records I like.