First, I purchased a commercially manufactured practice pad. It's been great and I use it often. I also purchased a stand for it that allows me to put it up at Odaiko height and angle, so not only can I practice my rhythms, but also my form and build my endurance. In western drumming practice pads are used primarily solo, meaning (or so it has seemed to me) you use one pad and practice your rhythms and your speed. When a western drummer needs to practice his form or practice coordinating hands on different drums, etc, he just practices on his kit. In taiko a great deal of our drumming is form. Our stance, our arm movements, and how we coordinate them across multiple drums or with multiple drummers is just as important as the rhythm. This, combined with my need to not aggravate everyone who lives close to me, made me consider a different approach. Though my one, commercially manufactured pad was good, I decided that I need multiple pads to be able to practice properly. Commercially manufactured pads are reasonably priced if you need one, but when you need ten all of a sudden they seem very expensive, so I thought I'd try to make my own.
This is what I did:
First, I went to a local discount store and purchased a yoga exercise mat. I got the thickest, spongiest rubber mat I could find. It cost me twelve dollars.
Next, to the hardware store to get a half inch piece of plywood. The commercial pad I own uses a high density particle board for a base, so I would assume you could use something similar to that as well.
http://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/geometry-plane/polygon.php
and calculated the angles and measurements I would need to lay that out. I cut off the corners and ended up with something that looks like this.
I sanded the corners and edges to round them and prevent slivers. Next I cut a circle out of the yoga mat using a rotary cutter and a cutting mat. I made the radius of the circle about three eighths of an inch shorter than the short radius (from the center of one of the flat edges to the center of the board) of the baseboard.
I then applied glue to the back of the rubber circle.
I used Loctite Stick 'N Seal. I won't be able to tell you how well it held up until after I've been using these pads for a while, but it seems to hold well. I've used it on other things without any problems.
I then took the rubber pad and pressed it to the plywood base board, but not too hard. Then I pulled it off again. This left glue on the base so I could see where the pad was going to adhere.
I took a spreader and smeared the glue on both surfaces to apply an even coat. I was careful to get right up to the edge on the rubber pad.
The glue is like contact cement in that you apply it to both surfaces, allow it to "tack", then press both surfaces together. I let the glue set for about ten minutes, then carefully pressed it on to the baseboard, making sure to align the two circles of glue. I stacked some boards and stuff on top of it to apply pressure and let it dry overnight.
The conclusion to the story is I was able to make numerous practice pads that have decent action and good return (they act like drums when you hit them with a stick) for less than five dollars a piece. Now I can practice complex taiko compositions that move across multiple drums without having to move out in the middle of the desert somewhere.
