Should I practise on a pad or on the kit?

Both, but in a fixed order. Learn the pattern on a pad where a wrong stroke is audible, then move it to the kit the same day so the hands learn the pattern rather than the pad. Patterns learned only on a pad tend to fall apart the first time the hands have to travel between drums.

How fast should I move the metronome up?

Four BPM at a time on rudiments and eight on grooves, and never past the tempo where the pattern still sounds even. A jump of ten or twenty BPM hides the fault you were fixing, which means you pay for the speed twice.

What stick size should a beginner start with?

A 5A in the wood tip, in a matched pair. It is heavy enough for rock volume without forcing a tight grip and light enough that quiet playing stays possible. Move to 5B if your hands tire at loud volumes and to 7A if you play mostly jazz or acoustic music.

Do I need a practice pad with a stand?

A stand is worth it. A pad on a table forces the forearms into a different angle than a snare does, and every hour on the wrong angle is an hour spent learning a grip you will have to unlearn. Set the pad so your forearms sit level.

How do I practise with a metronome without it becoming a crutch?

Alternate: eight bars with the click, then eight bars without, then bring the click back in and hear where it lands. Playing only with the click teaches you to follow it; playing only without teaches drift. The alternation is what builds internal time.

Kick Pedal Setup: Four Adjustments That Decide Your Foot

A poorly set up pedal makes a good foot sound late and a beginner sound hopeless, and the fix is usually four adjustments that take ten minutes. Beater angle, s

setupBench notes

Derived from the meter, one pin per beat

Published: 2026-09-29 · By The Percussion Desk

A poorly set up pedal makes a good foot sound late and a beginner sound hopeless, and the fix is usually four adjustments that take ten minutes. Beater angle, spring tension, beater height and footboard position interact: change one and the others have to be re-checked. Here is the order that works.

Beater angle first

Start with the beater resting about 45 degrees from the head — roughly the position where the beater's shaft is halfway between vertical and horizontal. Too far back and the pedal has a long throw that makes fast repeated notes hard; too close and there is no room to accelerate, so the drum gets a weak slap instead of a full stroke.

Set this with the pedal's beater-angle screw, not by changing spring tension. Many players adjust the spring to fix an angle problem and end up with a pedal that fights them.

Spring tension second

The spring's job is to return the beater to the resting position within the time of one stroke. Tighten it until the beater snaps back cleanly and no further. A spring that is too tight makes every stroke a fight and tires the shin; too loose and the beater does not return in time, which you will hear as a flammed double hit on fast passages.

Test: play 16th notes at 120 BPM for 20 seconds. Every note should sound identical. If the second of a fast pair is weak, the spring is too loose or the angle is too far back.

Beater height and material

A beater hitting above the centre of the head gives a longer note with more low end; hitting near the centre gives more click and punch. For most rock and pop playing, aim for the beater to strike about 5–8 cm above the drum's centre — you keep some low end but gain attack.

Material decides the attack: felt gives a rounded, classic sound; hard felt or plastic gives a click that cuts through a loud band; wood is the most extreme and can damage the head if the bearing edge is rough. Switching from felt to a hard beater is often the single biggest change in how a kick sits in a mix.

Footboard and your throne height

Footboard height and the ankle's resting angle decide how much of the stroke is ankle versus leg. A higher footboard puts the ankle in a stronger position for fast, quiet playing (heel-up technique), a lower one suits heel-down for control at low volume. The relationship to your throne matters more than either: if the throne is too high, the whole leg has to lift the foot to reach the pedal, and timing suffers first at slow tempos.

Set the throne so your thigh is roughly parallel to the floor, then adjust footboard height. Recheck the beater angle after every throne change — moving the seat changes the angle your foot approaches the pedal at.

What to hold on to

Set beater angle (~45° from the head) before touching spring tension
Spring tight enough to return the beater within one stroke, no tighter
Beater strikes 5–8 cm above the drum's centre for punch with some low end
Throne height changes your foot angle — recheck the beater angle after every seat change