Karen Carpenter made me want to be a drummer.

 Karen Carpenter made me want to be a drummer.

Let's be clear: It's just a practice pad.

I’ve decided to create some clarity for folks wanting a pad but wading through the muck to decide which one. Because as we know, todays mass-produced pads are really expensive.

HUN active sand pad: made by HUN in China, and OEM’d (rebranded) by Salyers and RCP. Three different brands, the SAME pad. (I have a HUN pad if anyone’s looking, works fine.)

Offworld Percussion “Dark Matter” pad: popular among the marching set, also OEM’d (rebranded) for Innovatice Percussion as their Corps pad.

Zildjian/Reflexx pad: made by Reflexx under Zildjian’s umbrella, copies of one or both sides of the pad are sold by Meinl and Vater.

Even tunable pads are not immune. After Remo’s design had been on the market for quite awhile, the original patent expired and other companies’ stylistic variations began showing up. Then, new technical variations on tunable pads appeared on the scene from RamPad, Drumslinger, and Rudimental Drummers. What sets these newer pads apart are the quality and durability, rather than something truly new and completely different. (Disclaimer: having owned all three of these brands, and still the happy owner of an RD pad, I can say that quality and durability are a big deal in a pad you use every day.)

And don’t forget outliers like Beetle, made one pad at a time in someone’s garage using sustainable materials. Not mass-produced, but a great pad anyway.

Why am I clarifying this?

Because the various and sundry companies

— note I did NOT say manufacturers —

want us all to believe that these various and sundry companies are all separate innovators of new pad ideas

— they’re mostly not —

and then charge us through the snout

— which, unless you make your pads one at a time yourself is probably not worth the price —

have a lot of gall.

I’m happy to pay more for a pad that is craft-made in the USA.

Not so much for something mass-produced in great quantities.

In my humble opinion,

There is no point in spending crazy money on a pad for its brand name **unless you know who made it, and where, and how.**

How do I know this? Because it’s the same thing that’s been going on since practice pads were first mass produced in large quantities in the 1940s. Look at the catalogs of Slingerland, Ludwig, Leedy and Gretsch, and look closely at their wooden slanted models. They’re largely the same, with stylistic and label differences. Because there are only so many ways to innovate a slanted pad!

By the 1970s, fewer companies are offering such wide variety in slant pads, and they all look like they could’ve been made by the same two or three manufacturers.

I own slanted pads from multiple makers, including the above mentioned and others like Camco and even George Way. (Rogers didn’t make their own “Red Dot” slanted pads, they got theirs OEM’d from a company called J & B.) They’re all so similar that friends who don’t know about pads ask why I bother collecting, and of course, I tell them it’s as much about the history of each pad’s owner as the pad itself.

But I don’t kid myself, and neither should anyone else.

In the end, it’s a practice pad. A tool to help improve your discipline and your playing. That’s all. Try not to get too excited, okay? Just buy a pad that you know you will enjoy chopping on every day and call it good.

Love, Aunt Beth

(Below: my homemade travel pad, made from scrap lumber and some gum rubber for about five bucks. It works fine, is lightweight and fits in my carryon, making it a true travel pad.)

Back in the saddle? I hope so.

The last time I strapped on a marching drum was in September, to do what I thought would be a short parade with Unpresidented Brass Band. The parade turned out to be over three miles long out and back, and by the time we finished I was beyond exhausted, I was officially fatigued. Rather than stick around for an impromptu standstill, I said goodnight and dragged my drum to the bus stop.
The next day, I told Miles I couldn't march with the band anymore, at least until I started to feel like I was genuinely improving and full over the Long Covid. He was sad, but understood.

Slow-forward six months, through one of the coldest and longest winters we've seen in awhile.
Im definitely over the Long Covid, and also recovered from my surgery a month ago; now I just need a reason to move around, and returning to UBB seems a worthwhile pursuit. We have a few gigs lined up, and I've been promised none of them are terribly long. So next month, I'm thrilled to rejoin the band and play my little marching snare again.

At my last rehearsal with UBB, my snare cord frayed and broke due to a jury-rigged snare hoop that guaranteed that outcome. So I looked around for a real snare side hoop and swapped it in, along with adjusting the snare strainer and adding a small Snareweight clip-on dampener to cut the ring. That is probably about all I can do for a six-lug drum with wire snares, and on a tight budget. But it should hold up for UBB gigs.

This summer, Portland will host its first ever HONK! festival, HONK!PDX, in July. UBB is expected to play, along with another Portland Honk! band called Brassless Chaps. The latter group tries to do standstill performances only due to several of their members being less mobile. I haven't heard them yet, but a photo of their group shows hand drums and a bucket drum in the drum line, so it's anyone's guess how they sound. I'll try to catch a show later this spring just to get an idea.

Without an indoor practice space, it's been difficult for me to handle playing in the park during the winter months, and I've learned that's been the case for some other UBB members as well. I hope the warmer days return very soon so we can play outside, or that we can find an indoor practice space to utilize in the meantime.

I had tried playing with an adult community concert band, but their musical quality was just not very good, and I didn't want to give up my Tuesday nights to suffer through reruns of high school band, so after three rehearsals I politely bowed out. At least people in UBB can play and we sound decent. I look forward to picking up where we all left off last summer.

 

DIY percussion: Practice-Tone block

This was originally going to be one of my travel cajons, but I drilled the holes in the wrong panel.
So what to do?
Something else.

4-sided practice block made from a cigar box.

— gum rubber on wood

— beetle percussion recycled rubber remnants on wood

— gum rubber on leather and silicone

— adhesive cork (2 layers) on wood

Sound ports for fuller tone.

It’s bulky but fun to play on, and construction expands beyond simply a practice tool because every side offers a different tone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

When should you use metal drumsticks?

 I had looked long and hard at metal drumsticks.

Made for warming up and building strength, aluminum sticks can be found in both solid and hollow varieties, in multiple weights and sizes. They should be approached with caution, and only by experienced drummers. Used with discretion they can be a part of a drummer’s conditioning. Used at too heavy a weight or too great a frequency, they can cause real and lasting damage to your hands.

Most aluminum drum sticks come in weights by ounces (usually 6, 8 or 10 ounces), and the weight of a lighter pair might surprise you.

I had an opportunity to buy a very affordable pair of lighter weight (4 ounce) sticks as part of a drum pad sale package, and figured that if they felt too heavy or otherwise wrong I could always find another home for them. To my surprise, they are nice way to carefully warm up at the beginning of a practice session. And they are plenty heavy enough for me.

I began by using the sticks on a softer rubber pad, playing slow, alternating strokes for a minute or less, then setting them aside and continuing with my regular sticks. Used sparingly — 2 to 3 times a week — they do help warm up my hands. If I feel comfortable, I will work my way up to ninety seconds over time.

My sticks were made in Taiwan and sold through an overseas wholesaler. I paid roughly ten dollars for my pair, and would guess that sold separately from the pad I got they’d go for less than twenty bucks a pair.

Other makes and models are made here in the US and sell for upwards of fifty to a hundred dollars a pair.

If you are a beginning drum student, avoid metal sticks and just keep practicing with regular sticks for a few years at least, especially if you are still growing. Check with your. Drum teacher and see what they recommend, and if they tell you to stay away from them, take their advice. Heavy warmup sticks are not for every drummer or every style of playing.