Bennys' philosophy on drumming is quite amazing. I love how he approaches the simplest things, such as pad work, and really gets you thinking about what your doing with your own playing that maybe suffering. One of the greats for sure. You Can't beat Vic Firth, the absolute best in the stick game!
I practice on my knees wearing jeans. Want more volume and rebound.. play closer to the kneecaps. Lower volume/rebound.. more to the thighs. If you hit too hard it hurts so it is easy to dial in the right practice volume. (and you can do it infront of the computer without problems.) :)
This instruction is worth its weight in gold. He’s the only person who’s talked about relating the dynamics of the pad to the actual kit. When/if you’re warming up with these “low-resistance” pads with little to no bounce, that forces control, it’s next to impossible to translate that playing to the kit because you’ll wind up playing WAY too hard. Next thing you know, you forgot how to play softly, and ghost-notes are non-existent, with zero dynamics, which is 90% of making a groove feel good. In the chase for perfection it took me over a decade to figure out that players have a tendency to try TOO hard to develop speed and control. Like using big heavy marching sticks to build strength. It will build strength…it will make your normal sticks feel light. Which initially is a really good feeling. But, that wont do a damn thing for your feel. Worse yet it can really screw it up, because your mental connection with the lighter sticks is all jacked up. Anyway, that’s an unnecessarily long way of saying saluting Benny Greg’s take on practicing on a pad.🙏🏻
thankyou mr greb and also vicfirth for another lesson,the information conveyed as to not put yourself under pressure to be constructive and to listen to the pad when using it as a tool to further our abilities🥁🇦🇺
Can anyone tell me the difference that he was talking about explain the exercise. I am noticing that the sticks in both examples of what to do and what not to do come up to a good height. But I am not catching the difference other than a slight tunnel difference of the sound when making Mack sent a note. Any help would be appreciated.
Totally! Pad practise is a quiet way to listen in a practise motions, but the sound is so important. I’ve done what you said, went from sticks on a pad to brushes on a real snare drum, at home, and wow I was loud. So I started working with brushes on real snare drum until I could do that at conversation volume. I’ve also blamed pads for being too loud, when in fact i’m hitting them 5 times harder than my snare drum at a gig. :-) The pad is a tool to practise, the goal is to play drums well, including sounding good.
Great content and so true! Hitting the pad with the whole stick has a function though, when practicing/emulating snare rim shots. Certainly not applicable to toms but I love Benny’s teaching 🙏🏼
Absolutely fantastic advice. Benny always has the most amazing pearls of wisdom to share. Definitely one of my favorite drummers. Thanks for sharing this! Now on to the pad!
Thank You Benny Greb! Your an amazing teacher, drummer, and dude! Love how you break down the groove to the self taught drummer keeping it simple enough to take in. Great style and delivery on the microphone and on the kit! Thanks again. 👍Vic Firth
I play the pad everyday. I have never confused accents with whatever that was; @5:21 Rimshots on the pad?? Actually, I don't see the flaw between the two types of accenting.
This is why practice/headphone amps are so important for electric guitarists or bassists. If you play the electric guitar unplugged, you will have a tendency to play with excessive force/velocity all the time just to hear what you are playing. That translates to horrible technique on the instrument (ie, plugged in), where it takes quite a light touch to do most things on the guitar, same as the drums. One of the secrets of electric guitar tone is to play softly and let the amp do the work. To do that, you have to practice playing softly. That is one reason why Wes Montgomery insisted on practicing plugged in, which led to him developing his thumb technique, because he was required by his wife and neighbors to practice as quietly as possible. It paid off :P A practice pad has a similarly compressed dynamic range. It is important to understand the feel we are going for, and then understand how the sound translates the same feel between different surfaces or instruments or situations. So the guitarist analogy for "tuning" your use of a practice pad beside a real snare is to tune your unplugged or quiet playing to playing at performance volume so you understand the feel involved in playing at that volume. Then from that foundation of being able to play with fluid intensity at quiet levels, you can more easily add in the accent movements. While it is ugly to play "accented" 100% of the time (drums or guitar), they sound nice as accents.
This has been my issue for like 10 years now, I only get to practice on a pad, I put a towel on it folded 3 times over so there is no noise/bounce, My hand technique is much better now, but I effectively sound like shit on the kit. Nothing I do pays off it seems. I have improved, just not like in a way that is commensurate with the amount of work I put into the pad. At this point, I still practice but it is more of a thought exercise were I just kind of imagine I don't suck on the kit but it is more like the actual dream of being a good drummer is gone. its more like just using a stress ball at this point.
Just so I understand the 2nd part: accents should not be played by switching from tip to neck but rather hitting with a tip all the time, just with different strength? I'm asking because (as a beginner drummer) I'm trying - instead of hitting the hihat the same all the time - to use moeller technique and hit the hihat with neck/shoulder, then tip and so forth..
He’s saying it’s cheating to drop your wrist on the accents and playing them like a rim shot. You’re dropping the wrist instead of training your muscles to just put more power in the accent stroke. John Bonham wasn’t a hard big motion hitter - a caveman. He had power snd finesse which made him sound loud But if you listen to his solos he’s playing plenty of rudiments which means he practiced the smaller more finesse motions and the accents
This makes me think whether practicing on a pad is worth it since it creates bad habits. A beginner is prolly better off buying a used mini snare instead of a pad
I always liked the idea of focusing on the sound that's being created - whether on a pad, or a notebook, or a pillow or the side of the bed... and once in a while on drums and cymbals.... Too bad my chops are lame, but at least I try to get decent sounds with my lameness...!
i found the practice pad had way to much rebound so a normal snare felt completely different and much harder to play on in comparison. I'm mainly practicing paradiddles on an extra snare I sound deadened and taped up, has much less rebound then a normal snare almost none idk if that's bad or not
I think its called stick creep, it's easier to be lazyier with arms and just try to make the stick reach further. To play on the kit with a efficient balance point we have to work on arm/shoulder strength and reaching.
@@krusher74 If i play on drums on balance point with drumsticks i not feel comfortable,but on practice pad feel better. Is this bad to play on drums not like on practice pad?
There are many virtuoso players out there, but not many that are also virtuosos at instructing and advicement to players that have already been drumming for years or even decades. Benny is both. Just like a Steve Gadd, a Simon Phillips, a Steve Smith, or a Todd Sucherman, not only do I love his playing, but eagerly consume everything he has to say on the subject, and never fail to learn something new each time !
Dunno if youre joking but I might agree on this one. If practicing on a pad might create bad habits, better not to use a pad at all and just use an actual snare. A beginner is better off buying a used cheap snare than an actual pad
@@handler803 jeez you guys. he just said: be careful and mindful when practising with a pad. the pad is still great if you are in a place where you cant be loud. just... you know, be careful youre not cheating yourself while practising on a pad. why do feel the need to elevate his careful, nuanced take to the most extreme (and totally wrong) conclusion? a beginner is better off hitting SOMETHING with sticks, if they live somewhere they cant be loud, that is a pad. the nuances of this video dont even apply to beginners.
@@brawlinharry6461 exactly. just be mindful of our tendency to "play harder" on the pad because it's intrinsically quieter. The goal is to practice velocity and match velocity to the different sounds it produces on different instruments. It's like if someone played electric guitar unplugged most of the time. Then you plug in and you're playing the instrument way too hard and it sounds terrible. The velocity you need to play the electric guitar produces almost no acoustic sound. So it's important if you practice unplugged to be mindful of that and play with appropriate velocity and feel.
