How to Play Drums Quietly

The key to becoming a great drummer is practice. The drums are extremely loud, and sometimes practicing can become problematic. There are steps that you can take to soften the problem so that you will be able to practice whenever you'd like.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• practice pads
• soundoff pads
• hotrods, blastix, multirods
• duct tape
• brushes
• blankets, towels, tee shirts
• mesh drum heads
• electronic drumset

1. 
    

   Use a practice pad - Technique can be very efficiently accomplished on a practice pad. Hard rubber pads are the softest in volume. Also, if you practice on a pad with brushes you are forced to work much harder and it is much quieter.

2. 
    

   Practice Sticks - Sticks with rubber ends are a great alternative to practice pads. You can use them on any surface and they make little noise.

3. 
    

   Pillows - Dennis Chambers, Tony Royster Jr., Chris Dave, and many other master drummers practice on pillows to build wrist strength. Any surface that has no bounce will force you to work harder. Playing on a pillow is probably the softest method of practicing.

4. 
    

   Multi rods - Although they don't feel like drum sticks, playing with multirods, hotrods, blastix, (or whatever you'd like to call them) produces a decent tone from the drum set. They are capable of executing a rimshot sound from the snare drum, and are especially useful for toning down the volume in live performance.

5. 
    

   Soudoff pads - You can buy a set of pads that cover each of your drums and cymbals. They take most of the bounce out of the drum heads which forces you to work harder to play. You can also practice on these with very large, heavy drum sticks or brushes to build muscles.

6. 
    

   Duct Tape - Duct taping the drums is an age old trick. The tape will cause the drum heads or cymbals to vibrate much less.

7. 
    

   Brushes - Practicing with brushes as if they were sticks will greatly enhance wrist muscles because the brushes do not bounce like sticks.

8. 
    

   Towel on your snare drum - This is a great trick because it feels exactly the same as a regular drum when playing backbeats. The towel kills all the resonance from the top drum head, but you still get a sound from bottom head and the snares. Also, you will be able to play rimshots. To play even softer, use a towel and rods.

9. 
    

   Blankets - Dave Weckl said that he opened up his drums and filled them with blankets so he wouldn't bother his neighbors in a New York apartment.

10. 
     

    Mesh drum heads - If you have extra drums to put them on, mesh drumheads feel very much like regular heads and make hardly any sound. Also, they have extra bounce which works the finger muscles.

11. 
     

    Electronic Drum Set - By far the most expensive option, playing an electric kit gives you the same response as a practice pad, but a drum sound to go with it. These are perfect for apartments.

12. Visualization - Studies have shown that the synapses in the brain fire identically when visualizing an activity as they do when you are actually doing it. Some weightlifters were actually able to gain muscle mass by visualizing lifting weights every day. This will be more effective if you can achieve highly focused and relaxed brain states.

Tips & Warnings

• Although it may not be as much fun to play quietly on pads, they can prove to be very effective for practicing.
• Bothering the neighbors is never good, but remember, the law permits noise (such as drums) as long as it is within reason. Talking about compromise is always the best option.