Your practice kit/station!

Bobbytard

Member
I just finished my practice kit/station to practice when I'm at home.

And it became this!

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DW practice kit
Evans real feel practice pad
2 Hanzenfutz

I'm really happy with it. :)

How do your practice kits/station look like?
 
My practice kit is my gigging/touring kit. I practice on that all the time, but when that get's a little to loud, I always practice on my lil tiny 6" real feel practice pad. Chops and patterns. It always helps me smooth out the rough edges of my playing..
 
Playing on the inside bottom of the steering wheel...that's where I hit. It's harder to land it there, you have to be more precise so as not to hit the center part of the wheel. Plus it affords my wrists more travel, the inside bottom of the wheel is closer to where your snare would sit. Playing on the top of the wheel didn't allow my wrists full travel, it's too high.

They need to make a vehicle just for drummers and their unique needs.
 
Playing on the inside bottom of the steering wheel...that's where I hit. It's harder to land it there, you have to be more precise so as not to hit the center part of the wheel. Plus it affords my wrists more travel, the inside bottom of the wheel is closer to where your snare would sit. Playing on the top of the wheel didn't allow my wrists full travel, it's too high.
Both hands (one at a time of course, at least my guess)? And matched only? Or some trad from time to time also?

I've done some pics of my practice station(s) and will be back later.
 
Both hands (one at a time of course, at least my guess)? And matched only? Or some trad from time to time also?

I've done some pics of my practice station(s) and will be back later.

Both hands, driving with my knee. One hand at a time when there's bad traffic. I can't do, nor do I have the desire, to learn trad. I never liked the look, but mostly I could not get an even sound and felt retarded. I started playing trad as a kid, but realized that for me, it's just silly.
 
My "practice station" looks a lot like my drum kit.​
 

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My kit is available to me any timde about 300 meters from the house. With it is a music stand, old Roland DR-5 and a small Sony Vaio.

At home I have a Realfeel pad and a throne. I'm working my left hand on it as I'm writing this and will leave for some kit practice shortly.
 
My kit is available to me any timde about 300 meters from the house. With it is a music stand, old Roland DR-5 and a small Sony Vaio.

At home I have a Realfeel pad and a throne. I'm working my left hand on it as I'm writing this and will leave for some kit practice shortly.

I would love to have my kit that close by. Where I live we have a youth center that has some band practice spaces and they have a REALLY old Premier drumkit with really beaten heads.

That's where I practice with my band. Longing for the day I get to setup my unused Tama superstar with 8", 10", 12 and 16" toms and a whole lot of sabian cymbals...
 
Made this for Jr. 13" tom stuffed w towels so it is quiet.
 

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What? It's not dangerous!
 

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This is my practice setup at the PC and the Roland TD-9 kit for temporary use (can keep it for another week or so). What I have is a cheapo marching tom modded into a snare, a decent hihat stand with budget (but ok) hihat cymbal, a dw2002 double pedal and a Meinl Byzance 20'' ride (stored). My double pedal (I was told it's the 2002 model although it reads "2000" on the footplates) in its usual position. Allows me to practice the whole day basically. I use a towel on top of the practice rubber thingy (RealFeel kick practice pad), for a different rebound feel, and the playing sound is far less annoying to the ears and sounds "more realistic". The sticks I have plus the new Ludwig P4 practice pad. 2 small Moongel pads not depicted. Sticks are: VF Thomas Lang, VF JoJo Mayer, Pro Mark Todd Sucherman, Zildjian Travis Barker (hardly use them - to feel too "boingy" to me), VF Scott Johnston (heavy marching sticks), a cheapo pair of brushes.

I was preferring the VF Thomas Lang sig sticks for quite a while but recently switched to the Todd Sucherman sigs. I found the VF JoJo Mayer sticks too light as my main sticks but use them to vary my practice. Those JoJo Mayer sticks work great on an e-kit though. The Todd Sucherman sigs are fine on everything. The P4 pad is great as I like to switch hihat hands / from crossed to open handed. I'm also switching lead hands and matched/trad all the time.

Sometimes I'm using the snare - hihat - double pedal setup when practicing in the homestudio (watching TV there) or use that setup in front of the PC desk (can use click MP3's but also have a hardware metronome).

I've added my hihat into the TD-9 setup - nice to do some hihat playing with the right hand, too - or with the right foot. (Trying to learn any hand/foot config possible). Just for variation and fun. Still don't like the meshheads but I must confess an e-kit is better than no kit. Haven't used the TD-9 a lot but am doing so towards the end of that period I still have it around.

The bigger HQ RealFeel pad on top of the snare, mostly set up lower than the smaller pad on the PC desk, and with lower setup used for matched grip primarily (way more left hand than right hand - practicing while being at the PC). I'm using the higher pad for left hand/trad grip mostly, or play both hands in-between for variation, then continue doing left hand practice. The towel under the higher pad is to reduce vibrations. (I'm doing the same when using the Moongel pads.)

Overall I'm working on my left hand way more than on my right hand. That's because of the time spending on my left hand while I'm continuing to work at the PC. A few days ago (for quite some time) I did a hand top speed and endurance test which was quite surprizing (and a bit shocking). My left hand is almost up to my right one (almost identical endurance, but about 10 bpm less top speed) - which is great so that isolated left hand practice really paid off. What isn't too great is that I expected my right hand to be a bit better.

For the rare moments of using brushes I'm either practicing on the snare or simply on a sheet of paper (it works). I think I'll use brushes more as soon as I get Florian Alexandru-Zorn's "The Brush Secret" DVD (comes out in 1.5 weeks).

I'm using a Swiss ball for about 40% I'm sitting at the PC, started doing this a few months ago. I'm so glad I found that tip on Tim Waterson's DVD - it helps getting the torso muscles in better shape, find a good balance for drums, feels good and is a fine variation to sitting on regular office chairs.
 

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I want to hang out at your place Arky. Nice.

I used to play pro-level steering wheel. Right hand at 2 o'clock, left, inside 6 o'clock. I know that people next to me at stoplights probably wondered exactly what my left hand was doing.
 
Evans 7" Practice pad for rebound exercises.
Remo 8" Practice pad for accent exercises.
El-Cheapo snare stand.
Terribly grainy cell phone pic.

Yep, I'm a rookie - how do you like those Hanzenfutz pedals?
 

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Yep, I'm a rookie - how do you like those Hanzenfutz pedals?
You use great sticks! That's important, too.

If you do a search for "hansen" or "hansen futz"/"hansenfutz" you'll find various info on them. Doing exactly this I've found this thread (there's more on those pedals on this forum though, just do the search):
Hansen Futz Pedals
http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65038&highlight=hansen

I never had or tested those pedals but I will do so. (Among others) Tim Waterson uses/recommends them
 
You use great sticks! That's important, too.

If you do a search for "hansen" or "hansen futz"/"hansenfutz" you'll find various info on them. Doing exactly this I've found this thread (there's more on those pedals on this forum though, just do the search):
Hansen Futz Pedals
http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65038&highlight=hansen

I never had or tested those pedals but I will do so. (Among others) Tim Waterson uses/recommends them

Thanks - found some old threads on them once I started spelling it right :) Decided to pull the trigger on a pair.

To stay on topic, here's a pic of my buddy Mike's practice setup, along with his actual kit. I'm always amazed that he keeps his practice setup so minimal. However, he's an absolute maniac with his gear, and is constantly tweaking, so it probably looks totally different this week :p
 

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