Re: Why practice on a pad if you don't have to?
- From: "Ed Pierce" <eddypierce@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 Jun 2006 13:54:43 -0700
Kevin Johnson & Debra Grace-Johnson wrote:
Hello all,
I've got what may seem like an unusual question.particularly for someone
like me who's been playing for over 20 yrs. Here goes: if you don't have to
workout on a practice pad for noise suppression reasons, what advantage does
practicing on a pad offer, over working out on a real drum?
I recently built a soundproof practice studio, so I can play full-blast at
any time of day or night without a problem. Consequently I hardly ever use
a pad anymore - I prefer to woodshed sitting at my kit, sometimes isolating
the snare for working solely on my hands.
Pads give an exaggerated rebound that's not indicative of a drum's actual
rebound, so why would one cultivate false rebound? I've seen quite a few
"pad gurus" who could not duplicate those blazing chops on an actual snare
drum.
Yet, I just read an article in Modern Drummer about Danny Seraphine where he
talked about hanging out with Steve Smith for 3 days at Steve's crib in
Oregon. Steve showed Danny one of his workout routines and, lo and behold,
the routine is performed on pads. With Steve's killer drum room, noise is
certainly not why Steve is working on pads, so I'm intrigued as to why he
wouldn't just do the routine on drum (or the kit).
I had the great fortune to study with Joe Porcaro for a year or so when I
lived in LA in the 70's and not once did he ever pull out a pad - we worked
strictly on the set. He felt it was very important to continually work on
touch, actual rebound, and getting a good sound out of the drum - things not
easily accomplished on a pad.
So..in your view, what are the advantages, if any, to working out on a pad
vs. working out on an actual drum?
~ peace, Kevin J.
Hi Kevin,
I think the main advantages to working out on a pad, even when a kit is
readily at hand and noise suppression is not an issue, are these:
1. On a pad it is often easier to hear irregularities in volume,
attack, etc.--sometimes these things are harder to analyze when playing
on an actual drum.
2. Practicing on a pad can help preserve your own hearing. If you
want to spend an hour practicing full strokes to build up your
technique, if you do this on a snare drum it's going to really fatigue
(and possibly damage) your ears. Of course, you could use ear plugs
when doing it on the snare, but then again this will also deaden your
ears to analyzing any irregularities in your playing.
That being said, you do make a good point that developing a good touch
on the drums requires at least some time playing on the drums
themselves (especially the toms) and not just on a pad; but I think
that many players feel to develop this touch you don't need to practice
on the drums 100% of the time, just some of the time. The benefits of
practicing on the pad as listed above outweigh the drawbacks, in other
words.
Ed Pierce
.
- References:
- Why practice on a pad if you don't have to?
- From: Kevin Johnson & Debra Grace-Johnson
- Why practice on a pad if you don't have to?
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