Long before Ahead made its Wicked Chops pad, drummers had been challenging themselves to strive for greater accuracy when playing. Here's a beautiful pad I recently obtained from a guy in southern Oregon, a lovely D-I-Y number that's super-fun to play.
He made the pad himself back when he was taking lessons. How? He took a small block of scrap wood, stained it, drilled a hole in the bottom, and affixed a very small disc of rubber to the top. Then he used a leftover music stand base to mount it on.
It's very short, and intended for use while sitting, perhaps on a drum throne that's lower to the ground than a kitchen chair. And it works just fine.
Above: The block mounted on its improvised stand.
Below: the surface of a Wicked Chops copy compared to the playing surface of the pad.
The modern pad's surface is actually a bit bigger.
Above: A quarter placed atop the pad.
When I was a kid, we would trace around a quarter in the center of our practice pad and work on getting our sticks to hit the drum head there every time. But having a surface area that's actually about the size of a quarter is even better. When you practice on this pad -- or its grandson, the Wicked Chops pad from Ahead -- you had better mean business. This pad will show your weaknesses like pulling the curtain to reveal who the Wizard of Oz really was.
So, in the interest of investigation of both the pad and where my weaknesses lie, I went ahead and made a little video. In order to get my hands and wrists in the right position, I had to bend over the pad slightly even while I was seated -- so perhaps I'll find a way to add an extension of some kind to give it a little more height for adults to use.
(Pro tip:When playing on a surface only a little bigger than a quarter, stay away from marching sticks.)
This is a sweet little pad, and I'm thrilled to give it a home alongside my other pads that live permanently on stands.
Happy drumming!
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