Pad Sticks

[JoesMechanic]

I can only speak for myself here.

Back when I was doing alot of kickboxing, I was also doing alot of training routines too.

One thing I noticed about working with weights.

One excercise I would do was for building up my hand strength. I'd lean over on a bench as if I was going to do a one handed push up with one hand, and the other had a weight Usually around 25-40 lbs. I'd hold the dumbell in one hand and allowed the weight to fall to the end of my fingers, and then suck it up into my palm. After a few weeks of doing this, not by reps, but by doing the excercise for minutes at a time, my hand grip was rediculously strong.

When I went back to the kit, I couldn't believe the accuracy and speed of my hands. I could really tell the difference.

Same thing when I practice at home on pillows, especially my traditional grip. It makes my control so much stronger.

After beating things all my life and really abusing my body thru mixed martial arts and all the other sports I've done, my hands still feel fine.

I like Vdrummers very comprehensive response. I think he nailed it the best.

[Vdrummer]

Groovesmitty,

I think I did address most of what you said in my previous post. But to be clearer, practicing on different surfaces is practical because a drum set has many different surfaces. From looser big toms all the way to your much tighter snare. Cymbals are obviously harder still, and your hi-hat surface tension is controlled by your pressure on the pedal. So working patterns out on gum rubber, neoprene, soft pads (moon gel), pillows, hard surfaces (kevlar), with different sticks, brushes, rods, etc., can all help drummers develop their skills, muscles, and touch. Theoretically, doing so might yeild quicker results because the drummer's technique doesn't require a single stick size on a single surface (snare). They should be able to adapt better to the different materials we drummers strike.

Using a kit is often ideal, but not always. Sometimes using a more bouncy surface will teach your hands the feel and shape of a pattern initially, before you can actually play it well on a drum. For example, a student can often learn how to do a double stroke roll on a gum rubber pad sooner than a drum. Later, once they have the basic feel of the pattern internalized (muscle memory) they can move to a drum, and adapt to that less bouncy surface.

This can be helpful when learning much more difficult patterns as well. Ask any drummer who's played rudimentally on kevlar - that's a very different surface. If you've played on kevlar, try playing the same stuff on a pipe band snare with snares not only under the resonant head, but pressing tightly into the batter head as well. Practicing on gum rubber, neoprene, pipe band hard pads, with a variety of sticks, all can tax different muscles.

Heavier sticks will develop some muscles faster by making some motions more difficult to execute, and therefore require more from those muscles. To play intricate material, a heavy stick's weight can work your small muscle groups (fingers) more than a light stick. Similarly, practicing with a lighter stick can help your technique develop too, but in different ways.

Personally, I think it's wise to mix up your surfaces and stick weights to avoid muscular habituation. I have four different practice pads I regularly use, and a few pairs of sticks, including a metal pair.

Many drummers advocate practicing rudiments with brushes. No one suggests this is a ridiculous idea. But suggesting using heavy sticks on a pillow goes against current opinion, and will attract immediate disapproval, yet both essentially do the same thing. Both methods force the drummer to articulate his stickings more and work harder than the surface and sticks/brushes he regularly plays with will.

Hey, as long we're all practicing with an awareness of our playing, sound, accuracy, dynamics, musicality and body mechanics we're bound to improve. However, I think some methods (mental and physical work better/faster than others.

Peace all!

Brad

[S.P]

Good stuff Brad, great insight!!!

The biggest truth that struck me from your post was that a gum rubber pad may make it easier for begginer drummers to execute a motion and exagerate (in you example of the double stroke to get the feel of making that second stroke even with help from the bounce from the gum rubber pad). Exagerating movements and practicing slowly at the beggining helps later to ensure that those motions are being used cleanly later without consciously thinking about it!