Practice Pad + Metronome Combo - Best Practice

A practice pad or drum pad, is a piece of equipment used by drummers and other

percussionists A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excl ...

to practice quietly, or to warm up before a performance.

Construction

A variety of practice pads have been developed to assist percussionists in different ways. Practice pads may be designed to approximate the

tension Tension may refer to: Science * Psychological stress * Tension (physics), a force related to the stretching of an object (the opposite of compression) * Tension (geology), a stress which stretches rocks in two opposite directions * Voltage or el ...

and response of a true

drumhead A drumhead or drum skin is a membrane stretched over one or both of the open ends of a drum. The drumhead is struck with sticks, mallets, or hands, so that it vibrates and the sound resonates through the drum. Additionally outside of percu ...

when struck, or to provide less rebound to train the percussionist’s muscles. They can be constructed in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are typically small and light enough to be easily portable. Many variations include harder or softer playing surfaces, non-skid bases (that can also double as

muted Protein Muted homolog is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''MUTED'' gene. Function This gene encodes a component of BLOC-1 (biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex 1). Components of this complex are involved in the biogenes ...

playing surfaces), and fixing points allowing the pad to be connected to existing percussion hardware such as a cymbal or snare drum stand.

Mylar

Some practice pads use a disk of

mylar BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and a ...

, or another material used in the construction of true drumheads, stretched over a substrate such as

foam Foams are materials formed by trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid. A bath sponge and the head on a glass of beer are examples of foams. In most foams, the volume of gas is large, with thin films of liquid or solid separating the ...

or rubber. These elements are fixed together by a rim of metal or plastic.

Elastomer

Many other devices use a thin layer of elastomer, such as

natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

or synthetic rubber of various densities, as a playing surface. This type of rubber surface is either placed directly over the top of an existing drumhead, or stuck to the top of a solid substrate. The rubber is designed to reflect a drumstick or mallet after being struck in a way similar to that of a true drumhead.

Mesh

Some practice pads use a disk of mesh stretched over a frame. The mesh is quieter when struck than rubber or mylar, and can be tuned to mimic different types of drum head by tightening and loosening it in the frame.

Use

These devices can be placed on a wide variety of surfaces including the player’s lap, a tabletop or the head of an actual drum. Placing the pad on the head of an actual drum can have the effect of transferring to the drum’s natural snare-side response along with severely muting the sound of the drum. Several units are often arranged like a standard drum kit or practice purposes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Practice Pad Drumming

Construction

Mylar

Elastomer

Mesh

Use

See also

References