HOW TO USE A PRACTICE PAD

Learn To Use A Practice Pad Effectively

Most drummers own, or have heard of the practice pad. It is basically an imitation drum, designed to play and feel like a drum, without making a lot of noise. They are usually small and light weight, making them very portable and handy to have around the house so you can practice. A practice pad can easily turn into a drummer’s best friend. Any instructor will tell you to practice with a pad, and they are not wrong. Practice pads are very useful, and offer a ton of advantages. However, there are some disadvantages to using them as well. So where do you draw the line between pad practice, and drum kit practice. Or does it even matter?

Advantages Of Using A Practice Pad

We will start out with the pros of using a practice pad. The first obvious pro to using a pad is the convenience. Being able to sit in front of a TV, practicing rudiments on a responsive pad that makes little noise, is very convenient. Using a pad will definitely cut out the loud noise a full drum kit will make. Another big advantage to using the practice pad is the ability to track your progress. Although you can do this with on a kit, it makes it a lot easier to hear a metronome, and gauge what speeds you are performing your rudiments at. Logging your progress is very useful, and should be done by every practicing drummer.

One big benefit to using the practice pad is it is very unforgiving. You will be able to hear and see where you are weak, and where you need improvement. Having a lot quieter tone, it allows you to hear a lot more of your drumming, and you can hear the metronome louder than your practice surface – making it harder to cover up your mistakes by the sound of the drum.

When you are playing on a drum set, you can get very distracted with all the drums in front of you. This can easily hurt your practice session, causing you to lose focus faster. With a practice pad, you are limited to the pad itself, as well as the sound it makes. Having only one drum will force you to focus on the essentials, like drum rudiments and stick control exercises.

Disadvantages Of Using A Practice Pad

There are some cons, however, to using the practice pad. The first obvious con is it is not an instrument! You can practice all you want on the pad, but you will never actually play the pad at a show or in the studio at all! This poses a big problem you spend a lot of time getting used to the feel of the pad, then are forced to play on a totally different surface. A pad is supposed to imitate a drum head right? But what about the cymbals and other drum voices you use. You will not get the same feel at all from these, and therefore will find it more difficult to utilize what you have learnt. Plus, with most toms there is less bounce than a pad. Playing a single stroke roll at 200 BPM may be possible on the practice pad, but when played on a tom, you may not be able to do it. This brings your confidence level down, which discourages you from playing the drums all together!
Unless you have a practice pad drum set, you are limited to one drum. Now I said before this is a pro, it is also a con in some ways. It may force you to practice your rudiments, but it will stop you from practicing had independence, and creativity. Having a whole set in front of you breeds creativity – something that sets you apart from every other drummer. When you only practice on a pad, you will feel more like a technical drummer, and will not have experience of the whole drum set. You will also find moving around the drum set is more difficult. However, if you own a padded drum kit, you will not have to worry about this.

The Practice Pad Is Essential

All in all the practice pad is a must for drummers. Being able to work on your rudiments whenever and wherever you want is perfect. Having the ability to track your progress and see your mistakes is what will allow you to improve that much faster. As long as you do not spend all your time on one, you should be ok.

DRUM HAND SPEED, POWER AND CONTROL

Develop Drum Hand Speed, Power, And Control!

There are three basic ways to play the drum kit with your hands. You can play each stroke using your wrists, your fingers, or combinations of both. In this particular lesson, we're going to go over the wrist technique and the advantages it offers. In the weeks ahead I'll follow this lesson up with two more covering finger techniques and combinations of wrist and finger techniques.

Why Use Wrists For Drumming?

Most people don't rush out of the gate with all sorts of amazing finger-technique, and thus they have to start with the basics. Playing with your wrists comes fairly naturally for most people, so it's an obvious starting point.
However, I would argue that maintaining wrist speed, power, and control is extremely important - even after you have learned to play finger techniques. There are a number of good reasons to develop and eventually combine both methods.
One thing many people overlook is that you get significantly more power when playing with wrists. Playing double stroke rolls on a low floor tom, for example, just doesn't sound right when played with finger-based techniques. Wrists provide the full power, and control necessary to make that roll sound clean.
Developing speed in your wrists also allows you to do more with finger-based techniques when you combine both elements together. I always try to keep my wrist speed as close to my finger speed as possible. Later, when you begin playing advanced techniques like the Moeller method, you will begin to see why this offers such an advantage.

Practicing The Drums With Wrists

Sometimes it can be hard to tell if you are truly playing using only wrists. It's easy to begin bouncing the stick a little in a double stroke roll, or using some finger technique in a simple paradiddle pattern. That's why I would recommend you spend some time practicing on a non-rebound surface. You can use something simple like a pillow, or a professional RTOM workout pad. Either way, as long as you can practice on something that offers very little or no bounce - you're good to go.
Practice playing singles (r,l,r,l,r,l,r,l), doubles (r,r,l,l,r,r,l,l), or paradiddles (r,l,r,r,l,r,l,l) along to a metronome. Set the speed fairly low and just focus on control. This is extremely important. Many drummers that want to develop speed start turning up the metronome way too fast. It is vital that you develop control over speed when first learning. Speed will come automatically once you begin to develop control over your wrists with these various patterns. Trying to shortcut control by focusing on speed will only hold you back. I've seen it over and over. Do NOT make this mistake.
Focus on staying relaxed and playing things perfectly in time with the click. Breathe deeply while you play, and work towards building muscle memorization. Train your muscles to play things right the first time and you will save years of corrective practice down the road.

Building Speed and Endurance

Once you have begun to develop your technique with solid control - then you can begin to develop speed and endurance. This is done best through repetition and controlled "burn through" exercises. Like a trained athlete - you need to push your muscles to the next level without losing control.
Start by playing singles, doubles, or paradiddles as sixteen notes at 100 BPM (or a moderate speed of your choice). Slowly move up in increments of 5 BPM until you are playing at about 50 BPM faster than when you started (in this example - 150 BPM). Spend some quality time at each speed - only increasing the metronome when you have played for a few minutes with complete control.
You may very well be able to play significantly faster than 150 BPM at the time, but that isn't the point. You want to develop control at all speeds, and the ability to play for extended periods of time. When you return to repeat the exercises (a day later perhaps), try starting out about 20 BPM faster than your last start point. Repeat and only progress to 50 BPM faster than the new starting point.
It may seem like a slower method of mastery, but it pays off in the long run. Don't rush through exercises or think that a particular speed offers no value to you. Dedicate two weeks to these exercises and see the results you get with daily improvements. I'm sure you will be pleased.

Advanced Drumming Tips

1. Try setting the metronome to half-speed as often as possible. For example, if you are use to playing sixteenth notes along with a metronome playing quarter notes at 200 BPM - play 32nd notes to quarter notes at 100 BPM. It is the same speed, but will force you to use your own internal clock between the less frequent clicks of the metronome.
2. Try to develop all of your patterns with right and left hand lead. If you haven't done this before - I'm sure you will find it fairly challenging.
3. Take what you've learned here and build a practice system around your drum kit using singles, doubles, and paradiddles and use the same tempo system to develop greater control.

ADD CREATIVITY TO YOUR DRUM

          Learn How To Add Creativity To Your Drum Beats

Tired of playing the same old beats? Sometimes as drummers we just need some fresh ideas to mix things up. This lesson will provide you with some tips and suggestions to fill your creativity toolbox.
 
1. Alter the Voices
Changing up a beat can be as easy as changing the sounds that make it up. This can include moving your lead hand from the hi-hats to the ride cymbal, crash cymbal, floor tom, or even a cowbell. Another option would be to change the snare shots to rim clicks or broken up snare/tom patterns. The main idea is take something you already know, and give it a new voice.
 
2. Change One Limb

Take a beat you already know, and change what one of your limbs is playing. You can change your lead hand from eighth notes to quarter notes, or change your snare hand to have additional strokes or ghost notes. Your kick drum could mix things up by changing the pattern or playing with a different technique (heels-up vs. heels-down, etc).

The main idea here is to keep the original beat flowing smoothly while a single limb changes it. Do one limb, then revert back and try another. You can eventually change multiple things to create an all-new beat, but the concept here is to create a range of semi-altered patterns that work well together.
 
3. Add Open Hi-Hats
Sometimes all a beat needs to take it to the next level is to have the hi-hats opened and closed on one or two beats. I typically like to add this on the "and" count of four (closing on the one count). It seems to work well over most music, so it comes most natural to throw it in there from time to time. That said, I like to mix it up and put it on other counts - even on the off-beat sometimes.
 
4. Change the Timing
This doesn't work for every setting, but sometimes you can mix things up by changing the structure. For example, taking a straight 4/4 beat and playing it as a triplet or swinging pattern. You could even add a quarter note and make it a 5/4 pattern to really mix things up.

Believe it or not, this can actually be used within a musical setting with a band too. No, you cannot alter the timing of what they are playing, but you can take a beat you already know and change it to match the timing of their song. You just have to pick a beat that doesn't already work. This is where you really start to think outside of the box.
 
5. Playing a Beat Backwards

Virtually every beat you play can be completely changed by reversing it. This is more experimental than the last tips, but it is still a great way to mix things up during practice. Sometimes it will work, and sometimes you will end up with something that is just un-musical. However, either way it is likely to challenge you in new ways and perhaps even give you some new ideas.
 
Try Them All
Give all five ideas a try. Don't skip over one just because it seems unusual at first. You never know what insight might be gained by trying something new. Play around and have fun with them. Even combine multiple elements to make things even more interesting.

PRACTICE TIPS

Practice The Drums Effectively - Practice Tips

These tips apply to any drum book, so keep them in mind no matter what you are studying. I might repeat some things that are already written in drum books, but I want to make sure all the important things are covered here in one place.

1. Take Your Time

When you start to learn something new, always start slow. Even if you think that you know the beat already, play it slow just to make sure that you are doing it right. Once you know that you are doing it right, then you can start to speed it up. Trying to play too fast at first will ultimately slow down your progress. It is important to learn to play things at a range of tempos anyway, so you might as well progress from slower to faster tempos than that other way around.

2. Count Out Loud

I remember when I first started playing drums, my teacher always told me to count out loud - even when I didn't feel it was necessary. Only later in my drumming career did I realize its importance when I was trying to learn more difficult beats and rhythms. Counting out loud is a great way to check and see if you are playing things right. If you are counting and your playing doesn't line up - you will know immediately that something is wrong.

3. Don’t Play when You Practice, Don't Practice When you Play

Dedicated "practice" time should be focused. You should never jam or play things you have already mastered during this time. Likewise, you should never be practicing things when you are playing with a live band or in another setting that is focused around "playing" music.
This is a mistake that we all have made. I am just as guilty of this as anyone else. It is extremely important to stay on task during any formal practice time. I have some students who don’t follow this simple principle and as a result have been working on certain beats for months. They come into lessons week after week without making any real progress.
I take a full lesson to have them work through a few beats properly, and they immediately start making progress. It isn't because I am there guiding them, but rather because they are actually focusing on getting better. Had they done this themselves, they would’ve saved a lot of time and money. Ninety-nine percent of the time their slowed progress is entirely due to unfocused practice.

4. Sit up Straight - Be Ready to Play

I don’t want to sound like your school teacher, but it is extremely important that you sit up straight during a practice or performance. Not only is this better for your body, but it also helps you stay more focused on what you are doing. You'd be surprised how much easier everything seems when you are in the "ready position" with your back straight and your arms loose and ready.

5. Don’t Give Up - Always End with an Accomplishment

If you are having a hard time on a beat or a section of beats, don’t give up! Take it as a challenge. All too often I see people get to the hard section of the beats and then give up. The whole reason you are practicing in the first place is to learn material that you don’t know. The hardest beats, when worked out and practiced hard, will probably become your favorite.
Often in practices I will set mini-goals to be sure I am accomplishing objectives. If I am having real trouble with a particular beat, I would make it my primary objective to master it. Often I will tell myself something like: "I will not stop till I can play this absolutely perfect 5 times in a row".
It's always important to end practices on a good note. Overcoming small obstacles is a great way to wrap things up and give you that added confidence to take your playing to the next level. Always remember to push yourself to catch that one beat, fill, or pattern that is giving you trouble. In drumming and in life, confidence based on accomplishment is everything.

6. Practice Does NOT Make Perfect

Practicing RIGHT makes perfect. I always stress the importance of this. If you are working on a beat and are not quite sure whether or not you are playing it right, then you need to find out. There are many ways to check your work:

• You can ask a more knowledgeable drummer than yourself
• Take one or more lessons from your local drum instructor
  (many teachers do casual lessons with students)
• Simply count out loud to make sure everything is lining up.

When you practice it wrong then you are only getting better at doing something the WRONG way. When you finally do realize what you are doing it is going to be that much more difficult to change back to the right way. Don’t get better at doing it wrong!

7. Use a Metronome (aka - click track)

It's important to incorporate a metronome into your regular practice. Don't become reliant on it, but use it as a training tool instead. It will help you stay on beat when you are practicing at a wide range of tempos. If you don't have one - you can get one at your local music store for $20-$50.
Sometimes playing a beat extremely slow can be just as difficult as trying to play it really fast. It's important that you learn to be flexible enough to play virtually any beat in any setting. You've already learned to play through things slowly at first, but I'd recommend going back to push things even slower after you've mastered them. This will actually help you when begin to practice it faster, as your muscles will begin to memorize the pattern.
When you are ready and feel confident that you can play a beat at a range of slower tempos - use the click track to practice at faster tempos. Make sure you start at a range you can easily play, and then increase the metronome speed by 5 BPM (beats per minute) as you feel comfortable. If you reach a speed you can't play - slow it back down until you are ready to proceed.

8. Set a Practice Routine

Ideally you want to practice everyday of the week, but at very least you want to get in to any form of routine. This will help you learn at a steady pace - spending more time advancing your skills instead of re-practicing things that you've already mastered.
A professional body builder doesn’t go into the gym and lift one weight and then walk out. In the same way, you can’t practice drums hard for one day and then go back two weeks later and expect to remember everything you went over. You might still know a few of the things, but ultimately you will have lost much of what you worked on. As drummers, we are trying to build muscle memory. Practice and repetition is key to achieving this.

9. Stay relaxed and loose

This was one of the hardest lessons for me to learn as a younger drummer. It is amazing how much faster and cleaner you can play just by relaxing and staying loose. A good way to make sure you are staying relaxed is by taking deep breaths while you are practicing. This is a great way to slow down your heart rate and calm your muscles.

10. Have Fun

I have to throw in the old “Have Fun” tip. I know it might sound lame or cliché, but it’s true. Always take time to enjoy playing your kit. It's important to practice hard, but it's just as important to have fun with the skills you are working so hard to develop.

HOW TO TUNE YOUR DRUMS

      Learn How To Tune Drums 

Tuning your drums is vital in getting the maximum sound and life out of your drum heads. Without tuned drums, your drum kit will sound muddy and out of pitch. Also if you don't regularly tune your drum heads, you will find that they will be more susceptible to damage and you are going to have to buy new drum heads alot faster than necessary. This article will give you the ABCs of tuning your drums to find the right sound for you, as well as give you tips on improving the strength of your skins. That being said, you need to know that there is no one way to tune your drums. Tuning your drums is extremely personal (like selecting skins) and you must experiment to get the pitch right for you!

Lets start with an empty shell. (For those unsure on how to remove your existing skin, refer to Jared Falk's Rock Drumming DVDs for the complete Drum head replacement and tuning section). Be sure to have a cloth handy so you can give your drum rim and new drum head a wipe down. Any dirt or wood chips that remain on the drum shell can cause the skin to go on warped, causing an uneven sound, or it can also damage the drum shell. Plus no wants a dirty drum. After you clean the drum shell, and the new drum head, you are ready to install the new drum head onto your drum.
Installing The Drum Head
Place the drum head on your shell, of course making sure the size of the drum head is the correct size for the shell. it should fit easily overtop, but not be "baggy" around the drum shell. Give the rim of your drum a quick wipe down, and place it on the skin along with the lugs in the appropriate holes. Tighten all the lugs hand tight at first; leave the drum key lone for a bit. Once the rim is on hand tight, you must stretch the head. This is a very important tip that most drummers do not know about. To do this, simply make a fist, and press down on the middle of your skin. This will help stretch and set your skin so it will not go out of tune as easily. You may hear the skin cracking a bit, but do not worry, that is normal. Generally speaking you shouldn't be able to press down too hard and break the skin. I have never broken a skin by doing this, but if you do, return it to your local music store for an exchange. Once you have stretched your drum head, go over all of the lugs again, and make sure they are all finger tight.
Tuning Your Drums

Now its time to tune your drums using the drum key. Tuning the lugs on a drum is like tightening the bolts on a tire, you want don't want to go around the drum in a circle, you want to move back and forth across the drum. Pick a lug to start at, any one will do. Say you turn it one and a half times, be sure to turn every lug (using the tuning pattern below) the same amount to keep the skin uniform. Keep tuning opposite lugs until they are all snug. Take this example below. You would want to tune each lug in alphabetical order. Start by tuning A, then B, and so on... 

Once you get the drum head snug, its time to actually “tune” the drum. Grab a drumstick, and tap 1-2 inches from any lug on the drum skin. How does it sound? If its the sound you want, use that lug as your “guide lug”. Again you want to tune your drums by tapping opposites, making sure you are tapping the same distance from the lug as the first tap. Make sure you tune every lug has the same sound in front of it or the whole drum will sound out of pitch. All that is left now is to find the right sound for you and the music you are playing.!
Tuning The Batter Head

Tuning your batter skin (the skin you hit) is the same as tuning your resonant skin (the bottom skin). To get a better sound from your drum, try tuning your resonant skin a few tones lower than your batter skin. Weather its a bass drum, snare, or tom, you can use this method on all. Just make sure you have the snare turned off when tuning.
Finding The Right Sound For You

There are many different types of drum heads that you can use depending on your style of drumming. There are different heads for jazz drumming, rock drumming, and country drumming. Next time you are in your local music store take the time to experiment with different types of drum head.
NOTE: tune your drums to your taste............

DRUM DICTIONARY WITH TERMS

Drum Dictionary with Terms and Definitions

Drum Kit /Set - A complete set of drums. This can consists of as many, or as little drums as desired.

Drum - A musical instrument with a hollow body, covered by a tight skin / head on one, or both ends. Used for rhythm by percussionists, these can range from small to very large.

Throne - The stool or seat of a drummer. This is usually a round adjustable padded stool specially designed for behind a drum kit.

Drumsticks - The main accessory to a drum set. Usually made out of wood, these come in pairs, and are used to strike the drums.

Cymbal - Concave brass or bronze plates used to produce high ringing sounds on a drum set. Can be played in pairs, or on their own with a stick.

Snare - Also known as the heart of the drums, the snare is the drum that creates a loud cracking sound. This drum has a set of coiled wires (snare) on the bottom skin of the drum. Tightening these will create a different sound.

Tom Tom - The drums with a certain pitch or tone. These drums produce a different sound depending on the size, and tightness of the drum.

Stand - A three legged upright pole, made to hold different drum hardware. Stands are used for cymbals, snares, toms, tambourines, and anything else needed to be help in place. Usually made out of chrome aluminum.

Wing Nut - A unique bolt designed for the tops of cymbal and other stands on the drum set. These are used to tighten the percussion piece to the stand.

Tension Rod - A screw that tightens the drum hoop onto a drum. These are long and narrow, and allow you to tune your drum by tightening and loosening your skin to a certain tension.

Practice Pad - A drummers best friend! A Practice pad allows drummers to play without making any noise. Usually the same feel as a drum, these are smaller surfaces, that offer the same bounce as a real drum with almost no noise.

Crash Cymbal - A powerful cymbal that emits a loud crashing sound. Used in all types of music, this cymbal ranges in sizes from 14 inches to 21 inches, and can be played loud or soft.

Ride Cymbal - A much larger, and thicker cymbal. This is more of a rhythmic cymbal that produces a higher pitch sound than a crash when played with your stick tips.

Splash Cymbal - A much smaller and thinner cymbal, used for quicker attacks, and higher pitched sounds. Ranging anywhere from 6 inches to 14 inches.

China Cymbal - A uniquely shaped cymbal that looks like it has had its edges folded upwards. This produces a darker effect sound, used in many styles of music. These can range in all sizes, and is usually played upside down.

Gong Cymbal - A very large and very thick cymbal played with a mallet. Has a much lower tone.

Stack Cymbals - A pair of cymbals stacked on top of each other to creat a unique rhythmic sound. Can be a combination of any two cymbals.

Cowbell - A thick bell origionally used to be hung around a cows neck. However, when struck with a stick, it creates a unique sound. Great for funk grooves, as well as salsa beats.

Wood Blocks - Blocks of wood with a hollow center. These are designed to create a certain note when played. They come in many sizes, ranging in all different notes and sounds.

Chimes - A set of cylendar bells or metal slabs hung together to create a high pitch musical tone. Usually hung in a row, they make a sound when they hit each other. A great mood instrument that adds ambiance and personality to any song.

Djembe - A hand drum made from wood, and covered usually in an animal hide skin. This African drum has a distinct low end sound, that can range in all tones, as the drum can be all sizes.

Conga - Deep wooden hand drum.(deeper and bigger then a djembe) Usually very big, these are used more for rhythm, and played in a lot of salsa, funk, and other latin grooves.

Bongo - A wooden tuned drum played with your hands. Like the djembe, these drums usually come in pairs, and are a little more rhythmic than the Djembe.

Timbales - Two drums like the bongo, but a little wider and longer. These are played with drum sticks instead of your hands, and are a great accessory to any kit.

Hi Hat - 2 cymbals stacked on top of each other that open and close. These are played closed for short high end hits, and opened for lengthy sloshy sounds. These sit on a hi hat stand.

Hi Hat Stand - An upright stand meant to hold the Hi Hat cymbals. This has a unique design to it, with a pole in the center that is connected to a foot pedal that allows you to open and close the hi hats.

Bass Drum - Usually the biggest drum. This drum creates a low punchy sound that you can usually feel. This drum is usually played with your foot hitting a pedal.

Bass Drum Pedal - The foot trigger that strokes the bass drum. This can be used on any percussion instrument, like a cowbell, or wood block. These are driven by either chain, belt, or direct drive.

Double Pedal - Similar to a single bass drum pedal, this has 2 foot triggers that are connected to two beaters that can hit the bass drum alternatively. Allowing for faster strokes.

Bell - A very thick cymbal smaller than most, in a large arc shape. These produce a very high pitch note that carries its note for a long time.

Cymbal Bell - The part of the cymbal that has the most arc. Located right in the center of the cymbal, striking this will give you a higher pitch “ting” then the rest of the cymbal.

Drum Skin - The piece that gets strung overtop of the drum. Also known as a head, this is what you hit to make the drum sound. Can be coated, clear, doubly ply, made from animal hide, and more. These are placed over the drum, and tightened to certain tensions to create different pitches.

Drum Head - See Drum Skin

Drum Module - The main brain on electronic drum sets. This is what stores all the drum voices, beats, metronomes, and songs. Usually what costs the most on a E-drum set.

E-Drums - Electronic Drums. Virtual pads that are full of sensors that when struck, send a signal to the drum module and create sounds. Can be played as single drums, or whole kits.

Effects Cymbal - Cymbals with different designs and shapes to create unique sounds different from regular cymbals. There are a lot of different effect cymbals out there.

Drum Rims - Circular rings that cover the rim of the drum. These are places over the drum skin, and are used to hold them on. By tightening these, you push down the skin (head), causing it to become more tense, and changing its sound.

Hoops - Like a drum Rim. These can be wood, or metallic.

Rack - Large stands that surround the drum set, allowing for easy connectivity of your drums and cymbals. These are very common for bigger drum sets, and usually eliminate the need for most drum stands.

Shakers - Ranging in different sizes and shapes, these are rhtymic tools. Hollow in the center, these are filled with small particles, sometimes sand or beans, that give it a unique feel when shooken.

Tambourine - An instrument with a set of small cymbals stacked on top of each other. When hit, it creates a high pitch, fast note that compliments most music. Can be hand held, or mounted for drum set playability.

Piccolo Snare - A smaller drum that is snared. This drum is usually a lot thinner, and offers a higher pitched snare sound when struck. Produces a very tight sound.

Firecracker Snare - Like a Piccolo snare, this drum is smaller in diameter, but larger in depth. Usually tuned very tightly, this also produced more of a high pitched “Cracking” sound.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT DRUM STICK

               Learn The Different Types OF Drumsticks 

With all the different varieties and brands of drum sticks on the market today, you really need to make sure you are selecting the most appropriate stick for your style. Would a heavy metal band want a drummer to use jazz sticks? Maybe your sticks are breaking too often, or you can’t seem to get the right sound out of your cymbals. Before you get down on yourself, check and see if the stick you are using is right for you. Start With The Drumstick Wood

To really find the best stick for yourself you should start with the core; the wood. There are 3 main types of wood used to make sticks. There is Maple, which is a lighter weight wood that has excellent flexibility. Maple is great for energy absorption, meaning you will fell less of the hit in your hands. There is Hickory, which is the most common wood with decent energy absorption and flex. Hickory is a well rounded wood. Lastly, there is Oak, which is the densest of wood. Oak sticks will not break as much, but you will feel the vibrations a lot more due to poor energy absorption. If the stick doesn’t state what wood it is, back away. This usually means it is a blended wood and is not made up to standard.
Choose a Tip

Now that you’ve selected the right wood, its time to chose the right tip. There are 2 types of tips to choose from; Nylon and Wood. Most common is the wood tip. This is a solid choice for most applications. The only real downside to wood tips is the fact that they may chip after extensive use. Nylon tips are great for bringing out your cymbals and getting better rebound from your stick. They are great for studio work when you want to really make your cymbals shine. The problem with nylon tips is they sometimes fall off your stick, which can be a real problem in the middle of a show! If you are playing on an electric drum set, you want to use nylon tips. Wood tips can splinter and severely damage your drum pads! There is alot to know about which tips work best for certain applications.
 Choose Your Size

Once you have an idea on you wood and tip, you need to find the right size stick for you. Different manufacturers will code their sticks a bit differently, so you may see a slight difference in a Vic Firth 5a compared to a Zildjian 5a. However, they are all very similar, and follow a general pattern. There are three main stick categories.

-7a. This is a thinner, lighter feeling stick meant for a softer sound on you drums. These work great for jazz drumming, or younger drummers.

-5a. This is the most common stick. Medium thickness allows for both loud and softer play. Great for rock drumming!

-2b/5b. These are thicker than average. They allow for louder sounding drums, and are ideal for heavy rock.
Funky Drumsticks

You may have gone into a store and found some different “Funky” looking sticks. These are unique designs made to either increase longevity, or grip of you stick. Rubber sticks are becoming more popular, promising to “never break” and offering replacement sleeves if they do. The problem with these sticks are they are very costly. Furthermore; you will find they cut easily on cymbals, and offer weak rim shots on the snare. Colored sticks are another design that is growing in popularity. Watch out with these, though, as you will find they tend to mark up your cymbals.

Always remember; if you are constantly breaking your sticks, check your technique before changing to heavier sticks. With proper technique, sticks should break very seldom. With all this said, you should have no problem selecting the proper stick for yourself. Keep in mind that a drummers stick choice is personal, so feel free to experiment around with different sizes and styles.

ESSENTIALS EVERY DRUMMER MUST LEARN

                     Essentials Every Drummer Must Learn!

Learning the drums for the first time can be a very difficult thing to do. There is so much to this massive instrument that someone could get lost very easy. Perhaps you already know how to play the drums but are finding it hard to progress with your skills. Whatever the situation is, learning the essentials of this massive instrument is a must. There are a few lessons that need to be learnt in order to be able to play and practice the drums effectively. Before starting any other lessons on the drums, make sure you go through these essentials and master them. If you are an advanced drummer already, you definitely want to go through them again to make sure you haven’t missed anything. There are a lot of drummers that do not know a few of these skills, which throws their whole groove off! Like I said; these skills are ESSENTIAL for every drummer!

The first essential skill a drummer must know before anything else is how to hold a drumstick. This is something that most drummers do not take the time to actually learn; they will just grip the sticks any way they feel comfortable. This is not the right thing to do at all! There are specific ways to hold the drum sticks for a reason, so make sure you go over all the different variations. Whether you play traditional grip, matched grip, or French grip, there is a distinct way to hold the sticks in order to get the maximum bounce and response from your stick. If you learn this right early in your drumming life, you will be that much better off, as your practice sessions will become more effective.

The next thing every drummer should know is how to count time. This is not as easy as counting to 4, there is a little more to it. Being able to count time means being able to count different time signatures, notes, and beats. If you cannot count the beat or groove you are playing, then how do you expect to play it properly? That is why you must develop your internal clock skills right away as a drummer. Most drummers think they can do this no problem, but when asked to play a 16th note pattern in 7/4, they stare at me with a blank look. So work on counting time so you can master you beats on the drum set.

One essential skill most drummers do not know is how to tune a drum set. You would be surprised how many students I get asking me how to tune a drum kit. The method isn’t really that hard, yet so many drummers never take the time to learn it. If you can tune your drum set correctly, your whole drumming experience will sound that much better. You will also get a further understanding for the instrument you are trying to master. Knowing your instrument is the first step in learning it.

Believe it or not, another essential skill drummers must learn is how to read sheet music. So many drummers do not take the time to even consider learning this. Understanding a little bit of drumming theory is the best thing any drummer can do for themselves; after all, drums are still music. Knowing how to read drum notation will get you a ton more gigs and jobs as a drummer. Musicians will appreciate you more too. But aside from all of this, you will be able to learn more quickly. When you are starting out on the drums, this is key, fast development. When you can read sheet music you can take advantage of all the free drum lessons and beats online. You will be able to learn more diverse beats.

These 4 skills are a must for any drummer, beginner or not. If you learn these concepts correctly before you start practicing, your practice sessions will be much more effective. If you are a drummer who has been playing for years now, go back and see if you can cross each one of these off. If you can’t, then you better get practicing. I guarantee you will see an improvement in your drumming if you follow these steps!

DEAF GUITAR PLAYER? SOLUTION....

You probably take it for granted that you know how to “listen” to your guitar playing while practicing. However, the truth is that most guitarists only “hear” themselves play - they never (or only rarely) truly LISTEN. Want proof? Have you ever struggled to improve your guitar playing with some exercise, playing it over and over without any idea what was causing your mistakes? If you answered “yes”, then your guitar listening skills must improve.

Why Is “Not Listening” Such A MASSIVE Obstacle For Improving Your Guitar Playing?

Very simply: you will make little or no progress in your guitar playing if you don’t know how to accurately evaluate your playing by listening. When you aren’t able to identify WHAT causes your specific guitar playing mistakes, it becomes next to impossible to actually “fix” them. As a result, you continue to wonder why your guitar playing isn’t improving until you either learn how to listen correctly or get a guitar teacher to point out the causes of your problems to you.

How Can You Test Your Ability To Listen To Your Own Guitar Playing?
To help you test yourself, I will ask you several questions about a variety of general guitar playing skills. You will need to answer either “Yes” or “No” to each question (for yourself). Warning: if you can’t answer with a definite “YES!” to a question, then your listening skills are poor in this area. Below each set of questions I will list several action steps for you to take to refine your listening and improve your guitar playing with each skill.

Take the test below:

How Efficient Are You At Improving Your Guitar Playing (Technique) Problems?
When you struggle to play something cleanly on guitar, can you usually identify (by listening only) WHICH notes aren’t clean?
When you make mistakes at faster speeds, can you tell if the problems occur because of poor 2 hand synchronization, picking articulation, strings bleeding (ringing) together, noise from other strings or combination of the above?
If your hands get out of sync while playing guitar, can you tell EXACTLY which note of the phrase this happens on?

If you can’t answer “yes” to all of these questions, you need to improve your listening skills in this area.

Solution: Hearing some of your guitar technique flaws becomes easier at slower speeds (this is one of the reasons why you hear the common advice to “practice guitar slowly”). In addition, exaggerating your guitar playing problems to make them even MORE difficult will often make the cause of the problem easier to hear/see. This is especially true of problems that can only be detected “in real time” at faster tempos.

How Effective Are You At Improving Your Guitar Vibrato Technique?
Can you tell (by ear) the difference between vibrato done in quarter notes, eighth notes or triplets?
Do you know for sure if your vibrato locks in rhythmically with the background music you are playing over?
Can you tell for sure if your vibrato is totally in tune when you play?

All great guitarists who have vibrato mastered can hear these nuances and know right away when any of them are not right. This is what enables them to self-correct their mistakes and continuously improve on guitar.

Solution: If you cannot answer “yes” to all the questions above (without hesitation), then your vibrato REALLY needs a lot of work and your ears need to become more refined to allow you to use this technique creatively in your guitar solos.

How Good Are You At Listening To Your Own Improvising?
Can you hear which (specific) notes of your phrases sound good over the music you play and which ones don’t?
Do you hear (in real time) if the current phrase you are playing fits together well with the phrase that came before?

If you said “No” to at least one of the questions above, here is what to do:

Solution: There is no single solution to the above problems relating to improvising on guitar, since these issues can occur for a variety of reasons. However, in most cases you can improve your guitar playing in this area by slowing down and “focusing” mentally on the sound of each note over the chord (to determine if the note fits that particular chord or not). In addition, you will have a much easier time listening to yourself while improvising after you learn to play scales all over the guitar, and master the skill of fretboard visualization.

How Good Are You At Improving Your Rhythm Guitar Playing?
Can you hear if your guitar playing is locking in perfectly with the beat (and when it is slightly off)?
Can you tell at what points your rhythm guitar palm muting is becoming unintentionally lighter or harder as you play?
Do you notice when your picking articulation is becoming unintentionally softer on some notes that are harder to play?

Did you fail at least one question above? If so, then read below:

Solution: You can develop your listening skills relating to timing by first clapping your hands along to a steady metronome click. Your task is to create the illusion of the click “disappearing” (by clapping EXACTLY on top of the click). This will also develop your listening awareness for playing guitar in time. In addition, refining your picking hand articulation will make it much easier to improve your guitar playing in this area.

Now that you have gotten an honest evaluation of your ability to listen to your guitar playing, you will have a much clearer understanding of how to improve your guitar skills. Of course your guitar playing challenges will change and evolve over time, but if you consistently refine your ability to listen for and detect flaws in your playing, you will always know what must be done to improve your guitar playing to the next level.

4 GUITAR EXERCISES YOU SHOULD STOP PRACTICING

Want to make faster progress in your guitar playing? Then stop wasting your precious practice time working on things that do NOT improve your guitar skills. Here are the top 4 items too many guitar players waste time on but get no benefit from:

1. Finger Independence Exercises

Lack of finger independence in the fretting hand is a common problem for guitarists, but most exercises prescribed for this are useless in helping you develop this skill. FAR too many guitarists practice all the exercises that are supposed to help their finger independence, but still have terrible fretting hand technique. Worst of all, many guitarists assume that their lack of progress with finger independence is caused by not having found the ‘right’ exercises yet. So without understanding why their fretting hand independence is not getting better, they go further off track searching for more exercises, not realizing that the entire premise of having ‘general’ finger independence exercises is flawed.

2. Finger Strength Exercises

Most guitarists approach the topic of ‘strength’ training for guitar in a completely backwards way. Yes, strength IS important for guitar playing, BUT your ‘fretting’ hand strength is the last thing you should be focusing on. Here is why:

1. It doesn't take all that much fretting hand strength to play notes or chords on guitar (with one exception being applying wide vibrato on bent notes or double stops). Even techniques such as legato or trills take a lot LESS effort than most guitarists (who haven't mastered these skills) try to use when playing them. This leads me to my next point:

2. The reason why most people feel like they need to ‘get stronger’ in their fretting hand is because they use way too much tension in their hand to begin with - causing their arm to become fatigued from playing a lot faster than it should. Instead of using ‘more strength’ (which will only make the problem worse), the solution is to learn to optimize the amount of effort you use in the fretting hand so that excessive tension doesn't accumulate in your hands (and the rest of the body) as you play. It is the lack of control over excessive tension that causes most guitarists to become tired while playing - NOT ‘lack of strength’ (or endurance).

3. It is actually the ‘picking’ hand that needs to develop the most strength and power in order to play with a wide dynamic range and perfect articulation in any context. As you play guitar, the amount of strength needed to fret notes stays essentially the same (very low), while the amount of force/power used by your picking hand to strike the strings can change many times (from very soft to very aggressive/loud).

Unfortunately, the vast majority of strength exercises for guitar players are directed only at training the fretting hand, hurting your guitar playing in 2 ways: by never addressing the root cause of why your fretting hand gets tired in the first place and taking your focus away from the hand that actually NEEDS to become stronger!

What Should You Do Instead?

1. Stop practicing strength exercises for your fretting hand and use that extra time to learn how to optimize the amount of effort you use to play guitar so that you do not get tired quicker than you should.

2. Practice to improve your picking hand articulation to actually develop strength where it NEEDS to be developed in your technique. A simple way to practice this skill is to play your guitar unplugged for a portion of your practice time (focusing on picking as loudly as possible). Doing this will force your picking hand to become stronger.

3. Guitar Speed Exercises

Similar to fretting hand finger independence, your speed is NOT developed by any specific ‘exercise’ (or a set of exercises). Speed on guitar comes from developing many elements of your playing simultaneously, such as: improving your general technique in each hand individually, improving your hands’ ability to work together (2 hand synchronization), learning to play with optimal tension, mastering the nuances of picking articulation, using the most efficient picking hand technique, learning to think at higher speeds, plus other factors.  These components of speed are trained by focusing your mind on refining the technical motions that make speed possible. Because of this, it really doesn't matter what exercises you practice - you can build speed with literally ‘any’ exercise, as long as your mind is focused on the right things while practicing it.

On the other hand, the problem with ‘speed exercises’ in particular is that they attempt to reduce the multi-dimensional process of building speed down to a one-dimensional set of repetitive motions with your mind often totally disengaged from the process. They also fill you with false expectations that a certain set of finger motions repeated progressively faster is what is needed to ‘build’ speed.

Realize that if you do not take the time to develop the technical elements that make speed possible, then mindless practicing of speed exercises will often do more harm than good to your guitar playing (by ingraining your bad technique even deeper into your muscle memory and putting you at a higher risk of injury).

What Should You Do Instead?

Instead of searching for more exercises that will get practiced in the same ineffective way, take any musical fragment that you find hard to play and focus your mind on improving a different aspect of your guitar playing each time you practice it. Practicing a single exercise with the focus on developing multiple elements of your technique will give you far more results than practicing 100 different exercises by mindlessly trying to ‘move your fingers faster’.

4. Exercises That Don't Help You To Reach A ‘Specific’ Goal

Too many guitarists spread themselves too thin, practicing every new exercise that comes along, but never really thinking about how or why a certain item helps them to achieve a specific result in their playing.

From now on, every time you are tempted to practice a certain item or an exercise, put it through the “Why” test. Simply ask yourself: “Why should I practice this?” “What ‘specific’ benefit will this item/exercise help me to achieve?” If you cannot answer this question in a way that sounds convincing and compelling to yourself, then what you are about to practice is likely to be a big waste of your guitar practice time.

Note: Some practice items may be very effective ‘in general’, but will be a waste of time ‘for you’ if you do not understand exactly how and WHY an exercise will help you improve your guitar playing. As explained above, no exercise will make you a better guitarist if you simply go through the motions of moving your fingers on the guitar mindlessly. Unless you are aware of the most important things to focus on when practicing an exercise (in order to reach the objective it’s supposed to develop), then you will be better off not practicing it at all until you are clear on exactly what to focus on while working on it.

Now that you have more clarity about what things waste your guitar practice time and hurt your progress, go through your practice schedule and critically analyze every item in it. Replace the materials that waste your time with more effective ones (or improve your effectiveness at practicing the items that already are in your schedule) and you will start making much faster progress every time you practice guitar.

GUITAR PRACTICE: FIXING UP MISTAKES

Your ears and mind are your most important guitar practice tools. Your ears help you identify specific causes of your guitar playing challenges and mistakes. Your mind trains your hands to make your guitar technique more efficient, accurate and effortless.

Most guitar players struggle to hear mistakes that occur at fast speeds. Notes go by quickly and you may only notice that something does not sound right…but not know why. Worst of all, some mistakes only occur near your maximum speed and disappear when you slow down.

These guitar practice methods help you identify and fix mistakes near your top speed without having to slow down:

Guitar Practice Method #1: Emphasize The Problem

Emphasizing the problem allows you to:
Have more time to hear sloppy notes while playing at or near your top speed.
Clean up your sloppy mistakes in the context of the original exercise.

Guitar Practice Method #2: Isolate The Problem

Isolation practice is about extracting a challenging group of notes from the context of the exercise (or guitar lick) and:
Practicing it over and over (in isolation) until it is mastered.
Inserting the challenging part back into the exercise to practice it in context.

Notice the important difference between emphasizing and isolating your guitar playing problems. Emphasizing a problem allows you to clean up your playing while practicing in context the entire time. It is most useful for refining an exercise or technique you can already do well and are close to mastering.

Isolating the problem allows you to focus only on the sloppy notes at peak intensity without being distracted with the other notes of your practice item. This method is most applicable when you are making big changes in your technique or are learning a brand new guitar technique for the first time.

Guitar Practice Method #3: Exaggerate The Problem

Sometimes it’s hard to identify causes of your guitar playing mistakes even after trying to emphasize and isolate them. Exaggerating your guitar playing challenges makes the symptoms of the problem more obvious and easier to observe. This allows you to identify the causes of the challenge and fix it more easily.

Examples of exaggerating your guitar playing problems include:

1. Playing even faster - if your playing first begins to sound sloppy at 100 beats per minute, increase the tempo to 110 beats per minute and practice at that higher tempo.

Doing this helps you to:
Feel the effects of the problem more clearly (so you can identify their causes and solve them).
Make the original tempo (100 beats per minute in this example) feel much easier by comparison.

2. Play guitar unplugged (at your maximum speed). This challenges your articulation (and 2-hand synchronization), so you can identify which notes are not perfectly clean. After you identify the sloppy notes, apply the emphasis or isolation guitar practice method to master what you are practicing.

Note: playing unplugged also helps your legato playing to become cleaner and more articulate.

This video shows you more examples of exaggerating your guitar playing problems so you improve your guitar technique faster.

Use these guitar practice methods to speed up your progress and make your guitar playing sound better.

HOW TO BUILD A DRUM SOLO

BUILDING A DRUM SOLO

The best way to look at a drum solo is by thinking of it as its own song. With a song, it starts out with a bit of an intro, and slowly starts to build. Towards the end, the song will build and build, giving off more energy to keep you the audience intrigued. You would not want a song to start with a heavy bridge and end with a slow, softer feel would you? The same is with a drum solo. A lot of drummers will throw their best chops, rolls, and drum rudiments in right at the beginning, realizing they have nothing left for a solid outro. This being said don’t think this is the only way to do a drum solo. A drum solo should be an expression of the drummer, if you want to do a solo with slow rolls for five minutes that is totally fine. Drum solos should always be unique and personal, but try your best to make them as innovative as possible!
Building A Drum Solo

It is very important to keep a solo in time. That being said, most times you can change the tempo to achieve a certain feel during your drum solo. A good way to keep time is by using a metronome, and playing a solid quarter note beat on your bass drum
Now its time to fill in the rest. There are many ways in going about doing this, so do not feel limited, this is only a very basic solo idea. Try adding some toms over top of your bass drum pattern. One example would be to add a 16th note roll on your toms.
All that is left is to add some cymbals in, and expand on the beat a bit. There’s no limit to how long you can’t go for, as long as you keep people interested. You don't want to keep repeating the same roll over and over. The audience will get bored very fast. You have to keep changing different techniques and feels, while keeping them all related. Just like a song, you wouldn't totally change the feel every time you go from verse to chorus, you always need something relative to tie everything together. Make sure that all elements of your drum solo all have the same type of feel. You can get a lot of ideas from going on websites like YouTube or Google-Video, these websites have home made video's from many talented drummers that you can learn drum solo techniques from.

Finishing A Drum Solo

There are many ways to finish off a drum solo. One way is to bring it down to a soft stop. This can be done by bringing the dynamics down, and slowing the beat down a bit. You may like this technique if you are doing a long solo, where all attention is on you. It will bring closure to your beat. The other way is to go out with a bang. This is a great method if you are ending a show, or song. Crash away at your cymbals, while playing on the set as fast as you can. Fast drum rudiments going around the toms are sure to impress your crowd. End with a final blow to your crash.

Like I said before, a drum solo does not have to be too technical. They just have to be able to keep the listener intrigued. I cannot express enough how important it is that you continue to be creative with your solos.To add some spice to any solo, try playing it with brushes. Make sure that every solo you create is unique to your style, the audience can easily sense if the drummer is bored, or dissatisfied with a performance. Soloing is very fun and rewarding, so always try new tricks, and never stop learning! Try to add some spice to your soloing by playing some patterns in a linear style