I've become one of those drummers that if I don’t have a pair of stick in my bad, in my back pocket or with in an arms length I feel naked. I always have drum sticks. I found if you don’t have stick patting you hands against your chest is a great way to practice. Then you can "feel" when you mess up. It works rather well. I also got these little rubber tips that fit on the end of my sticks. They are really slick. They make next to no noise unless you are doing like 9 inch accents. If you keep it to a 3 inch tap, the noise is like none. They're great.

Yeah i was thinking about checking out those silent tip things. I wanted to get someone elses opinion on them first though. I also agree on the "always having sticks with you thing." It just feels wierd if i dont have sticks with me.

i dunno, i find myself snappin my figrs walkin down the hall nowadays. all my teachers hate me cuz i'm constantly double strokin on my desk. i mean all the time. i usually play on my thighs and stuff like that tho.

In my AP government class there is a tenor player, and a drum major. Me and the tenor player will just start playing the show, and sometimes the drum major will start conducting. Its kinda funny.

One time, the snare and tenor players all got ISS (a very long story. It was for "gang activity" Yeah, its kinda funny when 8 white guys get pulled into the office for gang related activity. (Yeah, we got screwed))but anyway. . . . The same tenor player and I had ISS together, and we just started playing the show or whatever. The ISS teacher kept getting mad at us and telling us to stop. I was all like "Sorry, its like a second nature." So then we had to go into paper rock scissors. . . . . (hey, we had 8 hours to blow!)

Yesterday at school I took out 2 pencils and started doing diddles on the desk. Some girl gave a an evil look to stop. So I played on my text book. It was so awesome. My friend was impressed. It basically annoyed everyone else though. But I can tell that they were jealous I can do it and they can't. Some of the thugs were impressed because they always be beatin on the desk doing some rap groove but when they heard me they started bobbin they heads like theys were lovin' it. Next step is to use Sharpie peamanent markers because they are longer than the pencils I was using.

I'm always tapping on things with my fingers or hands or even pencils. It usually makes people mad cause I do it when I'm thinking hard, and I don't even realize it. Back in marching band season, I used to run the entire show using my fists as the bass drum parts and hands as snare. (Usually having bass drum rhythms by my side helps my snare playing when I go over our show). But I have found that tapping on things constantly isn't OCD or terrets or anything. (Contrary to further belief). It actually helps your sticking.

Yeah, It helps build muscle to contract your fist repeatedly. Its actually pretty tiring.

I'm always getting yelled at for tapping on the desk. wether it with pensil or just my hands. My one teacher gave a speech on how every year she has a student "tapping his/her way through class". It was actully really funny.

I also start tapping when Im thinking hard or trying to figure out a dang math problem. Most of the time i find myself doing single 4's with my right hand. I think all this tapping we do in between classes and during helps <s>alot</s> [color:"red"]a lot</font>. It's seemed to improve me.

Yes, I would have to completly agree with you MrWooton, because drumming is not only muscle memory, but part of the mind as well. If you cannot understand the way a particular rythem is supposed to sound in your head, then you probably cannot play the rythem. Thus, tapping on a desk can really help one to understand the concepts of variouse rythems.

That's probably the smartest comment I ever made...