Homemade Marching Band Quints "Practice Pad"

My daughter was selected to play the Quints for her high school marching band. The only problem, she was going to be travelling for the summer with her grandparents. We decided that she needed a decent practice solution.

Sure, she could have used books positioned as a practice pad. But what fun would that be... For her or me?

The list of supplies is pretty simple. As long as you have a few tools for cutting and shaping wood, also a pen, a razor knife, some sandpaper, and a few clamps.

For my design, this project used three layers of finish grade plywood. There is an alternative that will be explained later. The idea would be to create deeper tones by changing the thickness of the overall project. That would also add to the cost. It would also make the project heavier overall.

My list (Prices at the cost of posting this. I already had some of the items, you may also.):

(2) - 1/4" x 2' x 4' sheets of Birch plywood. ($17 per sheet at a big box store) (For top and bottom)

(1) - 1/2" x 2' x 4' sheet of Birch plywood. ($27 per sheet at big box store) (For middle layer) see note below

(1) - 1/4" x 2' x 4' Rubber mat. ($20 at a farm store sold "by the foot")

(1) - Can of Satin clear Lacquer spray paint ($9)

(1) - Can of "Big Monkey"(not the real name) Brand spray adhesive ($12)

(1) - Bottle of Same big monkey brand wood glue ($8)

(1 - 2) - Bottles of "Super" glue ($5 each)

Total Cost = $115

Value of Daughters smile = Priceless!

Note: The alternative would be to use a thicker wood for the 1/2" piece or to add layers. I am not sure how much the sound would change. I just know that it would.

The first issue was to figure out what the drumhead sizes should be and the basic layout. This was by scouring the interwebs looking at various marching drums and finally looking at the actual drums that she would be playing. (The goal was for the basic layout to be similar to drums that she could potentially play if she were to play for college as well.)

After the layout was determined, at least mentally, the rubber mat was laid on the floor and several circles of the proper sizes were drawn. This was done by using a simple string, a pin, and the pen.

After laying out the sizes on the mat (yeah, there are more than one set of circles in the picture, but I wanted to use the rest of the mat for another purpose. hence different layouts.), the cutting began.

Honestly, I wasn't that concerned about the writing on the mat. The finished side had no markings.

BTW, I used a regular old ball point pen to mark the mats initially, which worked. But then marked them out with a paint marker as well. The pen worked fine. But my old eyes preferred the contrast for cutting.

My final circles measured: 5 3/4", 7 3/4", 9 3/4", 11 3/4", and 12 3/4" (Purposely made 1/4" smaller than what is seen written on the mat.)

And... They were cut out with a razor knife. Honestly not the easiest thing to do, there has got to be a better way of cutting shapes out of rubber mat. But it did work.

After cutting out all of the circles, they were laid out in the manner that was desired, on the top layer of 1/4" plywood. The layout was consistent with the other drums that had been viewed. And the spacing was very similar. No science here, just creating what was similar, not exact.

Here, the overall shape of the project was drawn around the pads.

To create this, a border of approximately 1 inch around the pads. This created a nice visual, but also allowed for some structure for the next step.

You will also notice the "swoops" between the pads, and the lower portion. There is no magic there, it just created more visual effect, as well as to allow holes for a potential support on the bottom.

What you cannot see is that outside edge of the pads was also traced. That doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but my mind needed it as a reference for later.

Also seen in the picture are x's drawn. That is where the holes for the support stand will go.

After the layout was determined, it was cut out with a handheld jig saw.

The shape was transferred to the other two pieces. They were cut as well.

Ok. Ok. A step was skipped here. Please forgive me.

The top sheet is basically done at this point other than finishing.

After cutting all three of the sheets to the outside shape, the placement of the pads was transferred onto the other two sheets. The holes for the support stand were also marked here.

The stand idea DOES work, but it moves around, ALOT. And if someone was wailing on the finished product, it could come off the stand.)

In the picture, you will see that there are the large holes for the chambers, as well as three holes for the drum stand fingers.

The chamber holes in the 1/2" sheet are cut out the same size as the markings I made of the placement of the pads. Again, this created a roughly 1" strip around the edge of the holes.

<<<< At this point you can decide if you want to make the project thicker, which would change the tones slightly. As said before, you could use thicker than 1/2" material, or add additional layers. But the chambers would have to be cut out of each. The end result would be slightly different tones, MORE cost, and MORE weight. For our purpose, we needed it to be as light as possible. You could experiment before gluing, but you would still have to cut the boards. Then just clamp them together, lay a piece of pad down and give it a hit. Of course, the bottom sheet would need to be drilled for the holes as well. As explained next. >>>>

On the bottom sheet, 1" holes were cut as close to the center of where the pad would be placed on the top. Again, no science here either.

<<Another note.. These resonance holes probably are not 100% necessary either. I am only going off of principle that I had learned years ago while designing speaker cabinets. Truth be told, it would take alot of math to get truly "tuned" frequencies out of these drums. I will let you decide. It worked for me.>>

The holes for the snare stand were also cut at 1 inch. The holes are ONLY in the bottom and middle layer of the project, NOT the top. The arms of the stand were stretched out as far as they would go, two legs on the bottom, and one to the top side. The goal was to use the snare stand that we had. Too bad it didn't go as planned.

After all of the cutting, the top was glued to the middle piece. Using the Big Monkey wood glue.

The next step after curing was to glue on the bottom. (This was part of the reason for the funky shape also, because I could easily envision myself gluing the boards to where the holes would not line up properly with the pads.)

After it was all glued, it was given a nice light sanding. This allowed the edges to be more finished together. It also created a bit of bite for me to use the lacquer paint. Several light coats were applied.

Once the paint was nice and dry, the pads were glued on using the spray adhesive. Both the wood and the rubber was sprayed, being careful not to go outside of the markings made for pad placement.

After the adhesive was nice and tacky (be sure to follow the recommendations of the adhesive for permanent gluing), the pads were placed and some weight was applied to help them adhere.

To "finish" the pads,1/2" wide strips of the same mat used to make the pads were cut for around the perimeter of the pad. This took a little bit of trial and error to get them the right size. This created a "rim" for the pad for rim shots.

There is some pretty simple math to help determine the length needed. But I am an imperfect guy, that cut imperfect rubber circles..

The strips were glued to both the pad and to the wood using Super glue. Glue was later added to where the ends meet, as well as on the inside perimeter where the rim meets the pad surface.

Care was taken to place the ends so they would not be where she would do a rim shot.

The pictures show the finished product. Actually, it was built over two years ago. It has stood up to the abuse of the angst of a teenaged drummer.

You can see that on the bottom, several scrap pieces of mat were glued on.

After determining that the snare stand didn't work out so well, we needed something to protect both whatever she sat it down on, as well as protect the drum itself.

The pads also serve as allowing for the sound to get out of those resonance holes.

On her trip, she would place it on a picnic table, or the table of the motorhome.

Aside from her travels, she has used it at home each year to have more practice at home.

Which was a bonus, because her school has several songs that are not written and are only taught by memory. She would learn them at school, and practice more at home.

Yeah, we know that that is sort of silly, but it has been a tradition of the school for 70+ years, or so we have been told. (Most of the regular songs have sheet music ;) )

Yep, the garage is a mess. Sorry. Too many projects going on at one time, I guess.

Please make two mental notes:

1 - how much it moves on the snare stand

2- if you listen closely, you can hear the different tones of each of the drumheads

Well, here it is. The totally finished product.

As you can see, I also created a "music stand" out of some left-over pieces and a chunk of 3/4 wood that I had.

The pictures explain what was done here.

The back plate was a from one of the 1/4" sheet cut-offs. As was the little retainer rail on the front. and the ledge strip is a piece of 1/2". I cut them and glued them together.

The arm of the back and foot was made out of a 3/4" piece of board that was left over from a previous project. the foot is glued and screwed (because some klutz (me) broke it).

Hope you enjoyed this.. It wasn't exactly cheap. And it could have probably been done cheaper. But I looked at it from the stand point that it could be a legacy piece. Or at least sell it later, if she decides to.

And as I finish typing this, my daughter is playing a rock beat on her drum set!!