Still struggling to decide what Christmas gift to buy the drummer in your life?

Here are some ideas:

Evans RealFeel Practice Pad
The 12 inch pad is my personal favourite as it fits on a standard snare drum stand (if they have a drum kit, they'll have one of these already). If you think they might prefer something a little more portable the 6 inch variation is a good shout.

Evans RealFeel Folding Bass Pedal Practice Pad
If they already have a normal practice pad, they might like Evans' Folding Bass Pedal Practice Pad for working out the feet. They'll need their own bass drum pedal to go with this, but if they have a drum kit they'll already have one of those. This pad makes working on foot technique easy for those times when practicing on a real kit isn't possible.

ACS Pacato Hearing Protectors
Musicians are notoriously bad at looking after their ears, with many forgetting that they only get one set which will have to last them a lifetime! With that in mind, and though not the most exciting gift, a pair of earplugs that are designed for musicians make the perfect stocking filler. Also a gentle reminder that they should protect their hearing!

ACS Custom Moulds
Hearing protection but for the more serious musician! ACS Custom Moulds are (as the name suggests) moulded to the ears, providing far better protection whilst preserving the quality of sound. I use ACS Pro17s, which are excellent.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50X Studio Monitor Professional Headphones
The Audio-Techica MX50 headphones are a little on the expensive side but well worth the price tag! I use these when practicing on my electric kit or when playing to music on my acoustic kit. They're very versatile and the sound quality is very, very good.

Vic Firth Drumsticks
Every drummer has his or her favourite type and brand of drumstick. If they've been playing for a while, this might be a tricky one. A safe bet are Vic Firth 5A American Hickory Wood Tips, these are super versatile and even if they're not the preferred stick of the drummer in your life, they'd be a useful addition to their stick bag. Personally though, I use Vic Firth 55A American Hickory Wood Tips. These are very similar to the 5As, but a tad thicker. I'm surprised more drummers haven't tried them as they are great drumsticks!

Vic Firth Brushes
A set of a brushes is a must have for any drummer and the Vic Firth Steve Gadd Signature Wire Brush are a great choice. If they're good enough for Steve Gadd, they're good enough for anyone! Brushes are primarily used in jazz but also great for playing quieter songs and gigs.

Meinl MSB1 Stick Bag
I'm always surprised by how many drummers don't have a stick bag! Save them from a lifetime of misery (and looking thoroughly unprofessional!) as they endlessly search through their rucksack for the right drumstick or their earplugs and grab them a quality stick bag.

Dixon Speed Wrench Drum Key
Most drummers will already have a standard drum key... or like me, hundreds of them scattered between various jacket pockets. But I doubt many have one of these Speed Wrench Drum Keys. They'll be thanking you the next time they need to change a drum skin!

Drum Books
I'm a firm believer that you can never have too many books. This is as true for drummers as it is for normal humans! I've already written a post on this so won't repeat them all here, but here are a handful of favourites. Jost Nickel's Groove Book's is fantastic, some of the ideas are a little advanced so this isn't really suitable for beginners. Stick Control is a must have for all drummers of all abilities, it's a classic. The Language Of Drumming is a great all rounder for all abilities. Exploring Your Creativity On The Drumset is another more advanced book, but a great choice for drummers looking for ways to push their drumming to the next level.

Drum DVDS
Benny Greb's The Art and Science of GROOVE is hands down the best education drum DVD. Benny is a master educator and drummer. I doubt it's even possible to make a better educational drumming DVD. For the more advanced drummer, Jojo Mayer's Secret Weapons For The Modern Drummer is also very good.

Hopefully that's enough to keep your drummer entertained and busy for the next year or so. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. If you're a drummer and have your own suggestions, please do the same!

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. An interesting piece on why we perceive some works of art or literature to be greater than others. Being exposed to something more frequently influences how good we think it is (the mere-exposure effect). However, it's not the only factor. Being repeatedly exposed to something we think lacks quality can lead to us liking it less. — "Great art and mediocrity can get confused, even by experts. But that’s why we need to see, and read, as much as we can. The more we’re exposed to the good and the bad, the better we are at telling the difference."

2. I like the sound of this: Kiss the Good Times Goodbye (an auto industry veteran on the future of cars).

3. Who'd have guessed the innovation of reading silently to yourself could have such a big impact on society: "'In the still largely oral world of the ninth century, if one’s intellectual speculations were heretical, they were subject to peer correction and control at every moment, from their formulation and publication to their aural reception by the reader.' As Saenger writes, asocial reading helped facilitate intellectual rigor, introspection, criticism of the government and religion, even irony and cynicism that would have been awkward to read aloud."

4. This video of a Japanese game show (apparently called Slippery Stairs) has been doing the rounds on Twitter this past week. What an emotional rollercoaster!

5. Don't you just love it when you completely forget about a song that you really like, and then you rediscover it? Here's Snarky Puppy performing Shofukan.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

ps. There'll be no Five Things next week as I'll be on holiday. But fear not, Five Things will return the following week!

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. “You have to copy and recopy the masters, and it’s only after having proved oneself as a good copyist that you can reasonably try to do a still life of a radish.” A great quote from this wonderfully titled piece on Louvre copyists: How to Walk Out of the Louvre With a Masterpiece

2. This Verge headline tells no lies: A game about AI making paperclips is the most addictive you’ll play today. Frank Lantz's game Universal Paperclips starts off with you making paperclips and ends (quite obviously) with you taking over the universe.

3. Should you become a specialist, a generalist... or both?

4. Tristan Harris' TED talk on How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day. If you found that interesting, this piece is worth reading too.

5. Nils Frahm has announced he'll be releasing a new album in January 2018. To celebrate I've spent much of the past week listening to... Nils Frahm albums! This week's music recommendation is his album, Felt.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. I've just started reading Mark Tegmark's book Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence — the subtitle helpfully tells you what the book is about! In chapter three Mark linked to this video showing Google's Deepmind AI program learning to play the Atari game Breakout. Pretty cool!

2. I really enjoyed this conversation with Robert Wright on Sam Harris' podcast. They discuss consciousness, Buddhism and the science behind meditation and enlightenment.

3. A good list: 33 ways to stay creative. "4. Get away from the computer" — Noted!

4. Morgan Housel on Expiring vs long-term knowledge: "Long-term knowledge is harder to notice because it’s buried in books rather than blasted in headlines. . . . It’s not just that long-term knowledge rarely expires, letting you accumulate it over time. It’s that [it] compounds over time. Expiring knowledge tells you what happened; long-term knowledge tells you why something happened and is likely to happen again. That 'why' can translate and interact with stuff you know about other topics, which is where the compounding comes in."

5. This week's music recommendation is Benny Greb's latest album Grebfruit 2. His reworking of Genesis' Jesus He Knows Me is really great. There's only one Benny Greb!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. A technology horror story — "I Forgot My PIN": An Epic Tale of Losing $30,000 in Bitcoin

2. It's easy to forget this: "Education isn't here to make you feel comfortable. A good education should, inherently, cause us discomfort. Part of the 'enlightening experience' built into the definition of the word 'education' itself is shining light into the darkness of our own ignorance. When has that ever felt good?" — We Shouldn't Always Feel Comfortable: Why 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Matters

3. I just finished reading The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. It's a fascinating, thought provoking book. It definitely tested my assumptions and biases in a number of areas.

4. Attack of the VR shark.

5. This week's music recommendation is Otto Totland's album Pinô. This album reminded me a lot of Nils Frahm's piano based albums, maybe that shouldn't come as a surprise as it was recorded and produced by him!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.