I love practice pads I really do,
So I was quite excited to to be in recipt of the new BS mini pad for review.

Bill Sanders pads should need no introduction. Bill has been at the forefront of producing some of the best silent practice kits and stand alone practice pads on the market since 1972.

The new model is a 7" mini pad and is constructed in exactly the same way as the other pads and kits in the BS range.
Black rubber atop a wood base with a raised metal rim attached by three small screws, and a non slip surface on the bottom, I tried pretty hard to get the pad moving around on the table and belive me once you put it down it's going nowhere!

For those of you dubious about smaller sized pads I can assure you that this model has exactly the same 'famous' feel as all other BS pads and Is simply a delight to play with just the the right amount of rebound as to accurately recreate the feel of a drumhead without allowing you to 'cheat' as some of the markets mesh based pads do.

The real advantage of the mini Though is its portability at 7" it should easily fit in your stick bag or music case making it ideal for both students and gigging professionals warming up backstage.

With a RRP of £23.00 the BS mini pad represents good value for money in my opinion,and should be a hit with parents of budding drummers and percussionists.

Having the legendary BS feel in such a portable format is a delight!
Mine my very well never leave my side again!

For more information on BS products
Check out
Www.practicedrumkits.com

When warming up I'll admit to really enjoying singles, doubles and paradiddles.
It's simple and predictable but never the less effective.
The only problem with an exercise as familiar to most drummers as two bars of singles two of doubles and two of paradiddles is that after a while one can almost suspend your brain and do it on autopilot. I've found that this can have a negative effect on the playing I do after warming up as haven't fully engaged the part of my brain that I want to use to create hip fills,grooves or phrases even though my hands are 'warm' enough to play them.

To add a little counting to this standard exercise try playing one bar of each rudiment as 16th notes in
4/4
3/4
5/4
7/4
Repeating each bar twice.This will cause you to have to count the exercise and have the added bonus of starting with the weaker hand every other time.

Give it a go I have to say I found it rather fun, and felt considerably more 'awake' when it was time to go to the job

You can find the sheet music on the
Articles page

Good luck

When I was 9 or 10 years old I was studying drums with my first drum teacher Ian Self. He was a wonderfull teacher and from what I am told always
started his students playing a swing pulse before a straight 8th feel. Standard fair once you'd gotten to a certain level were charts like 'little brown jug' and 'American patrol' by Glen miller.
I had also taken on the idea of the drums as a supportive instrument aside
from the ocassional four bar break and of course the short breaks in the charts
mentioned above I had never heard a drum solo and was more than happy to
be just an accompanist.

Then one sunny saturday afternoon.......... Somthing happened!!!

whilst at a car boot sale I picked up and purchased a record ( for 40 pence) called 'Glens greatest' it included a few of the tunes i was studying so I thought great! now i'll have somthing to play along to, And rushed of home to listen.
The last track on side one of that album was 'Bugal call rag' featuring a stunning solo by Murice 'mo' Purtill (pictured)
Wow!! what was this?? how do you do that!? I want to do that! I MUST DO THAT!
I wore the grooves out on that record and bounced off to my drum lesson to learn the dark secrets ...or so I thought.

Ian's response to my asking to learn that track was a flat NO, very possibly because at the time I had nothing like the level of technique to even get close to what Mo had played! However I was bitterly dissapointed and set about trying to work it out myself.
In any case the die was cast and I was now totally hooked on drum solos (still am!!)
so with the help of the staff at the now long defunct DRUMPAD in northampton I set about finding out about truly great soloists
like Buddy,Morello,Bonham,Bozzio and many more. Solos became part of my deal if I was in your band when I was younger
I played a solo! gradually though memories of that first miller solo drifted away.

Litterally years and years later whilst sitting with a guitarist friend of mine  we were sifting through records and I stumbled upon 'Glens greatest' and put it on.
About half way though the solo my friend commented
"jesus mate no wonder you liked this..... it's your solo!!!!"
there was then much laughter and leg pulling but he had a definate point, there coming through the speakers was pretty much every lick I was currently using despite not having actually heard the record in years and never having gotten close to being able to really play it when I was younger.

This really got me thinking and brought me to the conclusion that listening is the single most important thing any young musician can do.The most important piece of gear you own is your ears.
Listen, Listen and then listen again let yourself soak up the music and the drummers your listening to so that you can identify them without even thinking about it. I really can't stress how important it is.
Over the years i've taken some great instruction from from some truly great people exceptionly talented drummers and teachers all of them.
But when it comes to soloing nowadays ilike to think i got one amazing lesson from Mr Maurice 'mo' Purtill
and all for 40 pence!!!
 I don't know about you but to me that sounds like a BARGAIN!!

Take it away Mo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scared of sight reading? feel the creeping fear of doom whenever you're called upon to do it
despite the fact that your a solid reader?
your not alone! it is said the frank zappa composed the black page because he'd heard of session musicians fear that one day they may be confronted with the unplayably difficult
'black page'

So what do you do about it? Well ive found that simply reading a lot during my practice sessions
and applying that reading in different ways didn't help me get rid of 'the fear' for two reasons first
of all i would usually read from one of my favorite books which a also use to teach,This meant that there was an unconcious level of familarity that has as much to do with the page layout as the content of the music. If you constanly read from computer
printed notation then suddenly reading somthing hand written or simply written in a different musical font can be enough to bring on an attack of the fear.
Secondly when im practising in the warm solitary inviroment of the studio i feel absolutly no pressure, no one is counting on me to cue them and i dont have anyone to impress if get it wrong there are no conseqences beyond my own frustration and dissapointment.

So went about simulating the sight reading experience in my practice in two steps.

1, i started to buy and store one or two books usually a snare drum book and a drumset chart book as well as a few random and usually very old individual charts from shows or bigbands away from the rest of my drum material and NEVER look at it without it being part of my practice shedule, once id used a page i wouldnt use it again for months.

2, I began always using a click or drum machine while sight reading at least set to a medium tempo and stopped allowing myself to correct my reading mistakes to simulate the feeling of pressure and to improve my ability to get back on top of chart if i made a mistake. this made every sight reading session in essence a performance for one (me) which gradually raised my confidence as i made fewer and fewer mistakes and at the very least covered them better.

Give it a go.... im sure it will work (it did for me) also try to remember that when you are asked to sight read generally no one is
out to get you, their not trying to trip you up, they just want good well played music as much as you do. so there's really no need for a attack of......... THE FEAR