The most important part of your drum kit is your throne.

Yes, I know it's a bold statement but it's true. Imagine a marathon runner trying to do a forty kilometer run in a pair of good old Dunlop Volleys............

As drummers, we also need the right support in order to feel comfortable, happy and play at our best.
"You just need something to sit on, right?" I hear you say.
Wrong!

How many times do you finish a long, rigorous rehearsal or lengthy gig and feel drained, uninspired and spent?
If you have an unstable, wonky throne that is too hard,  wont go to the right height or is just simply old and worn out, then it will have a substantial impact on your energy level and the way you play, and, in turn affect your level of confidence and motivation.

Now I'm certainly not saying that a new throne on it's own will fix your technique or make you a better player. What I am saying is that if you start with focusing on 'you' being comfortable and in a good, supported position behind your drumkit then the other stuff will be far easier to work on.

With the right throne, your own kick pedal and personal selection of sticks you can effectively sit down behind any drum set, no matter what the quality or configuration and feel comfortable, confident and ready to churn out some great rhythms.

With the correct throne for your body type you will transform every moment you have behind your drum kit into a comfortable, pleasurable and energizing experience, enabling you to stay focused on the most important thing, the music!

By Mat Watson

Most of your interaction with the drum set is done through your drumstick grip, and therefore feeling comfortable with your grip is very important. The information contained on this page really originates from a quest to make the drumsticks stop flying out of my hands.

As I was learning to play drums, at some point I felt sufficiently confident to start playing loud and fast enough for the drumsticks to start flying out of my hands. Obviously not a very desirable result! I've seen this happen to professional drummers as well, so if this happens to you, know that you're in good company. But, of course it's always better to keep the sticks in your hands while you play.

There are two things you can get to immediately eliminate or greatly reduce the flying sticks incidents. The two are drummer's gloves and drumstick wrap, also known as drumstick tape. These two items increase friction between your hands and sticks, and cushion the shock of hitting things. Each of them will help by itself, but both will help even more. Gloves and wraps will not only prevent sticks from flying out, but will also make gripping the sticks generally easier. The increased friction reduces the amount of force required to hold the stick in place.

Drummer's gloves are designed to have high friction, while being as thin and ventilates as possible. I recommend and use the Zildjian gloves. They come in different sizes, S, M, L, XL, etc. I think they tend to run one size smaller, at least in reference to men, so that an XL is like a normal L.

Drumstick wrap is high friction rubber-like tape that wraps around your stick. If you do use it, just remember not to wrap the stick more than a half inch beyond where your hand makes contact with the stick. Otherwise, the wrap might get shredded as the stick hits the rim of the snare or the edge of a cymbal.

Gloves and wraps will help you hold the sticks, but if your drumsticks are flying out of your hands, you might also need to improve your gripping technique. You might want to study the articles on this site discussing drumstick grip. Start with the drum sticks balance lesson.

As soon as I put emphasis on letting the stick pivot more freely in my hand (pivot about my index finger that is) when it recoils from a strike, the sticks stopped flying out even without the gloves. Therefore, keep this in mind while studying the grip technique lessons.

http://drumsetfun.com/drumstick-grip-comfort.php

A Metronome is a vital tools in music education. Guitarists, pianists, violinists, and bass players, all use metronomes during their practice, therefore it's not surprising that drummers, the "time keepers" of music, do too. In order to be a good drummer, you'll need to keep good time, and practice with a metronome can help you do that.

The very basic drum practice is simple left, right, left, right... drum strokes. Start very slowly to develop good technique. You can set your metronome at 80 beats per minute, and strike the drum every other beat. This pace will give you enough time between strokes to concentrate on your form. Try to land on the drum exactly with the metronome's beat. This will require you to lift your stick a bit before the beat.

Once you feel comfortable with your technique at the speed you're going, adjust your metronome and increase your speed a bit. As you practice, never go much faster than you feel comfortable, or your form and technique will go to hell, and if you practice with bad technique, you'll learn bad technique. Not good! Once you start going really fast, instead of having the metronome go crazy, you might want to do several drum strokes for every one metronome beat.

You should also practice any drum beat you play with the metronome. You'll probably find that keeping up with the metronome beats is a little more difficult than playing it "free style". When you practice a beat, make sure the metronome's accented sound starts the beat's measure.

Practicing with a metronome will improve your time keeping almost by magic. You might not feel your sense of rhythm improving while you work with a metronome, but you'll sense it when you later play without one.

http://drumsetfun.com/metronome-practice.php