But that’s also true for practice pads, electronic drums, or any other surface that isn’t an acoustic drum.
If you’ve used one of these alternatives you know it doesn’t feel like the real thing. But they do a good job capturing the fun and joy you get from ‘real’ drumming when you can’t get to a kit. They keep you engaged and driven to get better.
That’s the key thing – practice tools exist to help you develop skills that are transferable to an acoustic kit. The same is true for air drumming, with one distinct difference…
You’re in full control.
One of the advantages of air drumming is that it encourages you to develop good grip and stick control. By this we mean not just relying on the wrist and instead incorporating finger control through a looser grip and becoming the rebound surface yourself. To help explain this, we’ve put a slow-mo clip in our ‘how to’ section below.
Why is that important?
Full control through the correct grip of your drumsticks means maximum bounce, precision, and an overall great feeling while drumming.
All drummers would agree that having good grip and incorporating finger control will let you play with more power, speed and finesse than relying on wrists alone. And the ideal ‘air drumming stroke’ incorporates finger motion.
By air drumming you can also learn advanced techniques like push-pull or the Moeller whipping motion.
How can I try it?
The goal is to have the butt of your drumstick hit your palm as you swing down and stop – as if you were hitting a drum.
You can see the range of motion and how relaxed it looks as the first finger and thumb do the gripping and the other fingers catch the stick.
Now, grab your drumsticks and give it a try.
If you’re not hearing the ‘slap’ you’re also not feeling the rebound. And it’s these collisions that makes air-drumming truly work. Not only does it feel good but it also puts a lot less strain on your muscles and requires less energy to drum.
You should feel and hear every single stroke when air drumming, even when executing movements such as fast double stroke rolls.
Final thoughts
Over time as you train yourself to control the sticks, your muscle memory takes over. Eventually, things like double strokes will feel completely effortless and will require barely any finger movement to execute.
At the end of the day, if you can’t get to a real drum kit you want two things from the alternative; it’s got to develop skills you can use on a real kit, and it’s got to be fun.
Get control over the drumstick and do more of what you love with air drumming and Aerodrums.
What’s special about an air drumming instrument?
By now you’re probably already aware that Aerodrums is 100% silent, portable, space saving. But that’s not all, with Aerodrums you get a full kit experience.
Unlike practice pads, you can train your whole body to move around a drum set.
You also get professionally recorded and real acoustic drum sounds, which makes your playing more immersive and fun.
We make another revolutionary program for drummers. It's gotten a reputation among pros who often write drum parts. But you can also use it to learn drum notation. And it's free for a limited time.
"Aered is a gem, it's so intuitive and quick." - Craig Blundell
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