If you don’t have access to your drums regularly, travel a lot, or have neighbors with sensitive ears, you will already have a PRACTICE PAD. But practicing without a drum kit is special! To keep your hands agile and dive deeper into EFFECTIVE METHODS that really improve your pad technique, ANIKA NILLES‘ PAD BOOK is JUST THE THING! 

Anika gives plenty of options WHAT AND HOW to practice on a pad. Practice pads are particularly well suited because they reduce drumming to one basic sound source. This way you follow a process of continuous progression in terms of stickings and rudiments, phrasings and rhythm concepts.

The FUNDAMENTAL WORKOUTS are allocated to four chapters: Subdivision Studies, Mixed Meters, Hand Independence, and Polyrhythms. The result is a complete system with triplets, 16th notes, quintuplets, sextuplets and septuplets, which are broken down into individual steps starting with a very basic layout before moving to more complex rhythms. The focus is on building up and consolidating fundamentals across all note values, raising awareness on a feel for time and rhythm, and presentation of many possibilities on how you can expand acquired skills.

Anika also puts together a collection of WARM-UPS which suggest ideas on how you create your own rhythm patterns out of the technical features in this book.

The deeper meaning underpinning Anika’s ideas is always how to be MORE CREATIVE. It is about working on your weaknesses, developing new ideas and rhythms for yourself, or simply looking at familiar things from a different perspective.

Back on the DRUM KIT you will find that you can focus on more specific, musically relevant topics such as sound, orchestration, and dynamics, since the hands, body, and mind have already internalized the basics practiced on the pad. JUST FUNDAMENTAL!