How to effectively practice ANY song on your practice pad
Imagine you’re practicing a song on the drumset. It’s not a crazy technical song (assuming you’re not in a Rush or Tool tribute band), and it’s a song you’ve heard a lot and know pretty well from a musical standpoint (think “Enter Sandman” or “Back in Black” - that type of song).
What typical technical struggles might you encounter when practicing this song? Is it hard to play with perfect time, locking in with the recording? Is it hard to play the fills smoothly and finish them on time? Do you ever feel stiff and not able to relax while you’re playing? Do you feel like your sticks don’t move smoothly from one drum to the next?
These are some pretty common frustrations I hear a lot, and every one of us has been there. So what’s a productive, efficient method for eliminating these issues? Especially how do you solve this if maybe your kit practice time is limited and you’re having to spend more time on your pad than on your full kit?
Here’s a cool exercise you can do…
If you caught the lesson on the YouTube channel a few weeks ago about what to practice and master before learning rudiments, you’ve already learned a little about what I’m going to share with you today. If you didn’t catch that video, here it is below. It’s an in-depth 25min lesson, but I believe it will provide you with a lot of clarity, direction, and encouragement with your pad practice. WATCH: “DON’T Learn the 40 Rudiments Until You’ve Done This First…”
In that video I teach an exercise where we practice playing simple “subdivisions” on our practice pad. A subdivision might be 8th notes, 8th triplets, 16ths, or any way in which the beat is divided. We could call those 8th note subdivisions or 16th note subdivisions. The purpose of the exercise is to build your time and your hand technique by having you play these different subdivisions with your hands along to a quarter note metronome. Click here to jump to the demonstration of the exercise in that lesson. We start with 8ths, then we transition to 8th triplets, then 16ths, then 16th triplets, then 32nds. There’s a bonus level of the exercise where we also play “quintuplets” (groupings of 5) and “septuplets” (groupings of 7). Download the PDF notation of the exercise right here.
The point is, this exercise helps you hear and feel how different note values sound all while staying within the same tempo. Let’s think about this for a moment and what this has to do with our discussion on playing songs well…
If you’re having trouble going in and out of fills smoothly and in time, your core struggle might have to do with grip and with your understanding of subdivisions. Think about it… If you’re playing a typical rock groove, you’re probably playing 8th notes with your right hand with kick on 1 & 3 and snare on 2 & 4. Then if you launch into a typical fill, you’re probably playing 16th notes. If the transition in and out of that fill is troublesome, then your core struggle might really just be going between right hand 8ths and alternating 16ths while staying in time. Guess what?! We can practice that very effectively on a pad.
How to do this exercise with any song you know…
Step #1: Find the tempo of the song, set your metronome to quarter notes, and practice going back and forth between a measure of right hand 8ths, then a measure of alternating 16ths.
Step #2: Then set your metronome to half tempo so that it’s only clicking on beats 1 & 3, and continue looping the pattern over and over.
Step #3: Then when you’re ready, set your metronome to only play on the downbeat (beat 1) so that you’re having to really listen in order to play your 8ths then 16ths in time. This is how you get super solid transitioning between different subdivisions.
Now I understand that not every fill is literal RLRL 16ths around the kit. Many fills are, but a lot of fills are something else totally different. Every fill contains notes of a certain subdivision, though. It might be a 16th-based fill or just an 8th-based fill. It could contain 8th note triplets instead. Either way, a fill is generally a change in what you’re already doing. Executing this change means feeling the pulse of the music, being aware of how the subdivision you’re playing fits into the beat, and letting your hands play the rhythm while your ear still feels the quarter note pulse of the beat.
An even more specific way to try this exercise is to literally play the rhythm of the fill on your pad. Whatever that rhythm is, play it every other measure, alternating back and forth with a measure of whatever the groove’s timekeeping is. This probably still means playing right hand 8ths for a measure, then the fill for a measure, looping that back and forth over and over again.
But here’s the big question…
Why practice this on a pad when I could just do it on the drums? That’s true… If you have access to regular, full-kit practice, why not just practice the literal parts on the full kit? Well, what we want to do here is target the core struggle. At a foundational level, your brain needs to be able to process the difference in feel, pace, and sound of different subdivisions within a beat. You can practice that on the kit, but then you’re also having to think about coordination, hitting stuff right, moving around the kit, etc. On a pad you can focus all your energy on playing in time. Nothing else. Just playing the rhythm - the essence - of the groove or fill…in time.
ACTION STEPS:
So to keep this nitty-gritty, detail-laden lesson concise, here’s what I want you to go do right now:
- Go download the notation PDF of the exercise I told you about, where we cycle through different beat subdivisions
- Watch the recent lesson on “DON’T Learn the 40 Rudiments Until You’ve Done This First…” (at a minimum, do step #1 here and download the exercise PDF :))
- Apply this entire exercise to whatever song you’re practicing just by finding the tempo of the song - then practice the subdivisions exercise at that tempo. That’s it!
Do those things, then grab your sticks and pad and head to the practice room! Or head to your bedroom or living room or desk. That’s the beauty of simple things you can practice on a pad. Have fun!
Stay Non Glamorous,
Stephen
