How to Make a Practice Drum Pad

I'm learning how to play drums, after a couple of decades wishing I knew how. It was only a day or two before I realized I needed a drum pad to use for practice, since I don't always want to sit at my kit, and whacking a pillow or book just doesn't do it for me. So I made one.

It was supposed to be a lot more steampunky than this, and it was also supposed to be decorated with a skull-and-crossbones, not a gay pirate skull, but anyway, this is how I did it.

First of all, I lucked out because I already had a piece of plywood that was almost the right shape already. I only had to saw one side. I bought two thin mousepads at Walmart ($3 each--I'd have gotten one thick mousepad but they didn't carry any) but before I glued them on I decided I wanted to trim the corners of the wood. That only took a few minutes, and I sanded the edges down with part of a cinder block I'd found while doing yardwork. Hey, you use what you have.

I glued the first mousepad face-down onto the wood, using my favorite glue, Gem-Tac. I got frustrated, though, because the nozzle kept plugging up and the glue was starting to dry while I was trying to clear it, and finally I just cut the end off. That was sort of a mistake since now the glue just pours out. But it did the trick.

Next I glued the second mousepad, the blue one, face-up on top of the first mousepad, the black one. If you're confused as to why the finished picture above shows a black mousepad on top, it's because after the glue dried overnight, the pad looked like this:

I'd gotten glue all over it, and it looked awful. Also I didn't like the blue. So I went back to the store and bought another mousepad, another black one.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. When I set the drum pad on the counter to try it out (and my counters are green, not yellow, but that's an awful picture--just wanted to make that clear, it's important), I discovered that the wood was a bit warped. The pad rocked on two of its corners.

(See? Green.) Fortunately, I have a bunch of little foam dots that came with the new cabinet hardware I installed in January. I thought I might be able to use them as shims, and they would help keep my new drum pad from scratching up tables or whatever as I used it. I put a dot in each corner and one in the middle, and to shim the wobbly corners I added a second dot on top of the first on the problem corners. I wasn't sure it would work, but it did the trick exactly. But I recommend you check first to make sure your piece of wood isn't warped.

After I did that, I tried a few paradiddles to see how I liked the drum pad. It worked fine but I thought it could use a bit more padding, which is why I ultimately went back and bought a third mousepad. I glued it on very carefully, using much less glue and making sure not to get any glue on the top.

The glue's still drying, but I went ahead and drew the skull on it (with silver Sharpie) so I could take pictures. I'm not the best artist ever and not only does my skull resemble a troll skull or something, with that huge jawbone, but I also managed to get it off-center. Since I need to practice hitting right in the middle of the drum, I added the blingy star thing, whatever you want to call it. And when I tried to add a pirate hat, it turned into a lady's Easter hat with a feather. Whatever. My dead troll is fabulous!

I wasn't going to include this picture, since it's just glue, but I like the pattern: