so i'm sitting here in biology class and we're reviewing karyotypes(for the THIRD time, booooooring).  so i start up a simple beat tapping my right hand on my laptop for a hihat, my left hand on the desk for a snare, and my heavily booted feet on the floor for bass... now i'm layin down this simple beat and everyone around me starts looking incredibly amazed, but that's not the point, does anyone practice like this? it's helped me alot.

You sure it wasn't your makeup they were staring at?

They were probably trying to concentrate...wait, what was I thinking, this is hs right?

Sure, I used to drum in class, though I don't recommend it.  I brought my practice pad and sticks to school almost every day, and I liked the practice time it afforded during passing time, lunch, etc.  Sometimes the pad would come out during class when it was free time, so to speak, and most people generally didn't mind the soft tapping.  Drumset technique was practiced at a minimum because I was mainly worried about my hands at this point in time, and half the time I was in high school I didn't own a kit anyway.  And never did I practice while a lecture was being given.

And what's this now, you've got a laptop in high school?!  I missed the digital age by this much (holds fingers a hairbreadth apart), I'm telling ya....

Well, I should add that I wasn't alone in my desktop drumming endevours.  Some less coordinated kids, to accompany their R&B-style singing, would pound out the rhythm using the side of their fist for the bass drum, and knock on the table for that cross-stick/piccolo snare sound (which is it, anyway?).

(bear with me, this is on topic) at work i spend a fair amount of time just checking through hundreds (sometimes thousands) of images making sure they are good enough to go on our site.  i use a thumbnail previewer called acdsee.  and what i do is just use the down arrow key to select through a big batch of files which are then brought up in a prevew window as the file is selected.  (heres the connection) i often pick my music according to what im working on.  this one vendor sends us thousands of small easy to load images that are pretty much all good.  so i can click through 'em pretty fast.  put on some slayer and go to town.  my index finger plays the down arrow key as a kick drum, etc.  makes the work more entertaining.  not really much good as practice though  

Yeh, I used to do most of my "school" drumming in detention.  LOL.

You guys are funny.  Thanks for the laughs.

I do the whole tapping and foot thing all the time.  I can't go a day without doing it.  

Tom

2 things come to mind:
 1- I went from a period of time without my kit/snare/anything without being able to play even a moderatly fast shuffle beat.  Spent a lot of time working this out on the steering wheel of my car, desktops, table tops, thighs, chest, what have you.  When I got back to the point where I had access to my drums again- I sat down and was able to do it like I'd never been without that ability.  Don't know why it translated from tabletop to hihat /bass/snare so easily BUT it DID.

 2-  As time goes by, its not the things you practice on that change... its the people you annoy in the process.
Put another way- my wife, Kristi, before meeting me had sworn she'd never marry a guy with 3 specific traits:
   A- Never Marry a guy named Mike (HA!)
   B- Never marry a teacher (I'm currently not employed as a teacher, but when we met I was getting my degree in secondary education and taught for several years before switching to medical technology)
   C- And probably most emphatically NEVER was going to marry a drummer  (God laughs)
So its no longer my parents who are annoyed- its the little woman and occasionally my youngest son- as I tune a drum in front of the TV while his show is on- Oh yeah- the oldest son- 6th grade- he's started drums in school (and at home) this year.  He's not even been at it a whole year and he's already discovered the table tops, etc.   Sorry Kristi- but NEVER say "never"

i do that a lot... but people always tell me to shut up
then i go cry in the corner of the room

i'm in henrico county and.... apple*shudder*. stupid ibooks!  they break at least weekly.  they need to take them all back and get rid of them.