By simplifying what I own for models, however, I am slowly rediscovering the best types of drum sticks in terms of weight, length, finish, taper, durability, color, and tip in order to match my particular needs.

Like highhats, drum sticks are one of the most important elements of your drum set. Take the time to experiment with various types, though one challenge you’ll encounter is a growing number of local music stores don’t carry a great diversity of brands these days.

What should you look for? In my opinion, the top five drum stick manufacturers in the world include Vic Firth, Zildjian, Pro-Mark, Vater and Regal Tip. If you get the chance to test drive some pairs, roll the sticks on a flat surface before using or purchasing them. Like 2X4s at the lumber store, drum sticks are not all cut perfectly straight. The more warped they are, the less efficient they perform around your drum set.

There are specific wood types and outer coatings to consider as well. The most common drums sticks are made from Maple, Hickory, and Oak – Maple being the most apt to break and Hickory drum sticks being the most popular. I have never liked synthetic sticks such as aluminum. Drums are meant to be played with real wood.
Varnished or lacquered sticks are important considerations as well. If you sweat a lot, you will want to avoid slippery coatings, or sand them down after purchase. There are a growing number of sticks with tacky surfaces embedded over the butt ends now. You can even buy sure grip wraps for them. I stay away from painted sticks, as they tend to taint my heads with that particular color.

As for drum stick tips, I still prefer wood, though nylon is the standard today. The problem I have with nylon is they tend to sound too pinging and brilliant on certain cymbals where wood produces much warmer tones. There are actually four types of tip designs and tonal qualities to consider, including: rounded (focused for cymbals), pointed (triangular shaped for medium tones), teardrop shaped (diverse sounds), and barrel (larger area for bashing). I have found the most success in playing distinct patterns with teardrops.

Size and taper wise, traditionalists will tell you that 5Bs and 2Bs are intended for hard rock drummers while 5As and 7As are best suited for jazz and funk. Though originally designed for such uses, I use 5Bs during practice to build my endurance for live gigs employing 5As. I have even used a 5B in my left hand for more punch on the snare while playing a lighter 5A on the ride and vice versa.

Choose the drum stick best fit for your hands and drum set positions, not just the musical style you are playing. Stick selection is an often-overlooked process to being the complete drummer, and is actually a critical ingredient.

Written by Tim Kane
Tim Kane is a professional writer, editor and drummer of 30-plus years residing in Massachusetts. Read and comment on his blog at www.dixondrums.net.

First, I am not ambidextrous and do not play open stick position all the time versus crossed. If right-hand dominant drummers have ever tried to set up their drums in a left-handed drumming position (right to left like Phil Collins), then they understand how the brain finally works – it’s great practice, but also very humbling.

Tour drummers such as Carter Beauford and Billy Cobham come to mind as musicians who are darn close to the freedom and agility of using both hands without a weaker side. That’s pretty impressive stuff to watch. But their expertise does not mean non-ambidextrous drummers can’t experiment with the new found freedoms open playing position provides.

Check out the audio tab attached here open playing position example to this blog of a spur-of-moment raw drum pattern I recently played to warm-up before a band rehearsal. The majority of my snare strikes were with the right hand while I carried most high-hat, crash and higher tom accents pretty much with the weaker left hand.

What I have found is that by playing open position at times during a song or solo, it provides me with a whole new world of off-beat accents and patterns to explore – some actually in reverse of how one would normally play that phrasing in a traditional crossed stick position. Open playing also gives me more “mobile” right-hand expressions on the right side of the drum kit – usually reserved for floor toms and rides.

Instead of playing snare on the normal 2 and 4 beats, open playing stresses the 1 and 3 a lot more in one measure, simply because your right hand is more attuned to accenting 1 and 3 heavy while playing crossed stick position in a standard 4/4 time signature.

By mixing and reserving stick and hand dominance more during songs, new styles and sequences suddenly begin to appear. If you set up a ride or crash ride on your left side, open playing also works great in situations where you desire a steady ride or bell pattern, but want more control and strength in accenting on the toms.

I also have set-up a tom-tom to the left of my snare and high-hat for years and found it has helped my left-side weakness improve.

Please take a listen to the attached track and share your own open playing experiences.

Tim Kane is a professionally-trained drummer with about 30 years performance experience.

Written by Tim Kane

Today, he feels lucky to have a diverse range of experiences to draw from as a working professional drummer.

Read Tim’s full bio

Drummers from Gene Krupa to Neil Peart have not only used drum rudiments for warm ups and to keep up their chops, but integrate them into their playing, as well.

Drum rudiments, which are basic drum patterns, are the best ways to practice stick control and wrist movement. Invented over 500 years ago by the Swiss for their fife and drum corps, rudiments first came to America with English regiments back in the 16th century. The first fife and drum book in America to list 26 drum rudiments was written in 1812.

Though many drum books and websites still list 26 basic rudiments, there are actually 40, counting all the variations, which are categorized into five rudimental “families,” including single-stroke roll rudiments, double-stroke roll rudiments, diddle rudiments, flam rudiments, and drag rudiments.

The single-stroke rudiments include the single-stroke four and single-stroke seven rolls; the double-stroke rudiments include the five, six, seven, nine, 13, 15 and 17-stroke rolls. Diddle rudiments are also known as paradiddles and include four different variations while the flam rudiments have 11 and the drag rudiments have 10.

Great use of the paradiddle by drummer Tim Pederson of Musician’s Institute.

The rudiments can be played with pretty much any of the three basic drumstick gripping techniques (matched grip, traditional grip or French grip), and are usually practiced mainly on the snare drum or on a practice pad. Some drum websites also suggest practicing rudiments with brushes as well as drumsticks.

Drum instructors also suggest that rudiments be practiced more so than drum sets for the simple fact that it forces you to keep your chops up by playing the basics. That isn’t to say the drum set isn’t important, however. There should be a balance there—going back to the basics and working on your speed and versatility will also help keep you up to par on the drum kit.
Listen to your favorite band, tune your ear to the drummer and you are likely to hear at least a couple of flams, lots of single and double-stroke rolls and maybe even a paradiddle or two. Just as the English language is based on the alphabet, the language of drumming is based on rudiments and you will only be helping yourself by working them into your routine.

Written by Toby Tate

Toby Tate is a performing musician, songwriter and studio engineer from northeastern North Carolina. Currently a freelance writer, Toby was a reporter and graphic designer for The Daily Advance newspaper for five years and has had stories and articles published in regional and national magazines and on the Internet. His first novel, DIABLERO, a supernatural thriller, will be released worldwide in October by Nightbird Publishing.

Besides the incredible speed and technique, notice anything different? Derek swaps his second and third tom, so that from left to right, the rack toms are: Highest, Lowest, Middle.
Whether you’re a beginning or an experienced drummer, there’s little doubt that one of your favorite things to do is hang out with other drummers and talk about drums. Listening famous drummers, playing your favorite fills for each other, talking about the latest gear… sound familiar?
It’s common, too, for drummers to talk about their setups. When other drummers play your kit, they may comment that your cymbals are too far away, or your toms aren’t in the right place, etc. You’ll be tempted, especially if they’re more experienced than you, to change your setup and angles based on their recommendations.
The trouble is, when it comes to setups and angles, everyone’s different. By all means, try out what’s recommended to you, but keep in mind that what works for someone 5’3” won’t work for someone who’s 6’3”, and vice versa. Similarly, there’s a lot of value in having a unique setup, especially if it works for you. Your more experienced colleague may not have the need for an extra hi-hat, or for the floor tom to be angled towards the snare.

Any teacher worth his or her salt will help you find a setup that works well for you and your body type. If you’re playing a 5-piece, the ‘typical’ setup is a good starting point, but when it comes to angles, and specific placement of the drums, the goal is to feel comfortable behind your kit, be able to move around freely, and to play with good technique.
Once you have a good feel for your kit and your setup, start experimenting. Change the order of your toms, add extra drums and cymbals, put your snare drum to your right…get creative! Over time, you’ll naturally come to a setup that allows you to best express yourself musically.

The point is: do what works for you. It’s not important that your setup look like the next guys’. In fact, it probably shouldn’t. After all: you’re you.

Footnote – This setup might be going too far:

How do you set up your kit? Are typical 5-piece setups the most common because they’re the BEST way? Any tips on coming up with the perfect setup for you?

Written by: Scott Honsberger

Scott is a drumming and music junkie, originally from Toronto and now living in Halifax, NS, Canada. He loves funk, jazz, jam bands, drum corps, rock climbing, and his iPhone.

Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick likes to use a pair of gigantic drumsticks, among other things, when playing live.

Professional drummer Lou Mars, who has been compared to The Who’s Keith Moon, says “I’m a show drummer, but more specifically I think my style is like a controlled crash.” Mars, the grand prize winner of the Dixon Drums’ “Drum your way to Hollywood” Contest, also set the second longest Marathon Drumming World Record at 108.5 hours in January 2010. But showmanship doesn’t have to be all about tricks with flaming beaters or huge drumsticks.

A friend of mine, a drummer by the name of Martin Parker, has played with artists like Ricky Scaggs, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, Patti Loveless and Allison Krause and never so much as twirls a drumstick. Yet, he continues to get calls to go on tour because he does one thing very, very well—he drums.
As an entertainer, it’s up to you to make sure the audience gets what it came to see—a show. But performing is also a balancing act that requires you to maintain artistic integrity and play to the best of your ability.

Written by Toby Tate

Toby Tate is a performing musician, songwriter and studio engineer from northeastern North Carolina. Currently a freelance writer, Toby was a reporter and graphic designer for The Daily Advance newspaper for five years and has had stories and articles published in regional and national magazines and on the Internet. His first novel, DIABLERO, a supernatural thriller, will be released worldwide in October by Nightbird Publishing.

For creative inspiration, both beginners and seasoned pros watch performances at conferences and online, like the one below by one of my favorites, Dave Weckl:

We watch a performance like that and think ‘Wow, now THAT is drumming!’ and we work towards it as the pinnacle. We hit the rehearsal room (or the basement) and funnel the inspiration into creating something new and magical on our own. It’s how we grow our musical minds, and I personally love this process.
There’s no question that the performance like the one above is incredibly motivating, and it’s so much FUN to see great drummers doing their thing. However, it’s really important to keep in mind that solos like that are meant to stand as a piece of music unto its’ own. Creating great parts for songs as part of a band is a much different process.

As drummers, I think we can often feel a bit slighted by the lack of attention and/or appreciation that we get. There are probably more drummer jokes out there than any other instrument (except maybe the bagpipes), and at a gig, we sit at the back of the stage while singers get the crowd going and guitarists rip into a solo with their foot up on the monitor. We want OUR parts to be noticed!

To this end, I’ve seen far too many drummers try to add complicated parts to songs to try and prove their worth and get that attention. I, too, have been guilty of this. I’ve created a part that I thought was really great: alternating between the bell and the ride, using ruffs and ghost notes in between beats on the snare, maybe throw in a little syncopation… and what happens? On playback (in the studio), it just…doesn’t…work.

It’s important, then, to give ourselves a reminder about our roles when playing with a band. To this end, I’m reminded of one of my favorite drummers by the name of Johnny Fay, who plays with Canadian band The Tragically Hip. If you don’t know the name, don’t feel out of the loop: he doesn’t get much industry attention, he’s never been on the cover of MD, and he’s probably never done a workshop. Why do I love his drumming? Because his parts are always rock solid, they hold the songs together, and most importantly, they suit the songs perfectly. For a great example of this, check out the song “Fully Completely” off of the album of the same name. The kick drum pattern is bang on with the bass guitar, it drives the track forward, and it’s simple. THAT’S drumming… in a band.

When you’re working on your own bands’ songs, then, keep in mind what the real pinnacle should be about for your parts when playing in a group: a balance between creativity, originality, and playing what suits the song. To me, that’s what being a great drummer is all about.
What are your thoughts? Any tips on finding the perfect part for a song?

Written by: Scott Honsberger

Scott is a drumming and music junkie, originally from Toronto and now living in Halifax, NS, Canada. He loves funk, jazz, jam bands, drum corps, rock climbing, and his iPhone.

Without a doubt active listening should always be a part of your drumming regimen. Developing your ear for music is a vital skill all musicians, especially drummers, need to have in their training arsenal.

Though it’s important, actively listening to your favorite drummers isn’t the only skill you should rely on to improve your craft. Using your eyes to drum is one way to start performing like a pro.

What Is Drumming With Your Eyes?

Most drummers would agree that it would be impossible to drum without your hands. But if you think about it, it would be equally impossible to drum without your eyes.

Put simply, drumming with your eyes means going to a live show with the specific purpose to watch the drummer and truly studying how he works from start to finish.

Like active listening with your ears, drumming with your eyes involves paying close attention to how another drummer sets up his kit, how he plays, how he interacts with his band mates before during and after a set.

In their own way, the best drummers use their eyes to study everything around them, especially the habits and behaviors of other drummers. And by doing so, they pick up little things and work those insights into their own style to hone their craft.

So whether you’re at a show watching as a fan in the audience or checking out a video at home, whenever you don’t have your drum sticks in your hands you should always be using your eyes to study, soak up and evaluate the habits and nuances other drummers.

One of the benefits of drumming with your eyes is that you don’t always have to watch the best drummers in the world to learn something or pick up an inside tip.

And once you get used to actively watching drummers of all skill levels, you’ll naturally become more aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. And when your drumming skills plateau, drumming with your eyes can also help to get you out of a creative rut.

And when you have that complete awareness as a drummer you’ll be able to improve your playing, make adjustments and perfect your own style. Like practicing your rudiments, taking time to drum with your eyes is one way you can elevate your playing.  It’s a visual drumming tool that, when combined with active listening, can send you on your way to laying down beats, rhythms and grooves just like the pros do.

How have you been drumming with your eyes?

What nuances have you notice by watching other drummers?

By Chris Catania
Based in Chicago, Chris Catania is the author of Live Fix, a blog that celebrates, explores and examines the live music experience. Chris also interviews artists and fans, reviews concerts, festivals, events and albums for Blogcritics, PopMatters, Ink19 and other online and print publications.

As drummers, we all take the snare drum for granted. It’s just another drum, right? Nothing special. But the snare is usually the first drum any drummer learns to play on. In fact, it could be argued that the snare drum is the key piece in your kit, providing the backbeat or the locomotion of the rhythm.

The snare drum began life rather inconspicuously—as a marching instrument for military bands, strapped on to its player and sporting an animal skin for a drum head. Eventually the snare became the core of the “trap” set or drum kit.

Snare drums can be made of birch, mahogany, maple, plywood, fiberglass, or even stainless steel and usually employ plastic or Mylar drum heads. Usually about 14 inches in diameter and six to eight inches deep, the snare drum is sometimes called “the steering wheel” because, well, it kind of looks like a steering wheel and because it “drives” the kit. Sitting on a stand, it is the central focus, directly in front of the player (in most cases) and surrounded by the other drums and cymbals. The kick drum, hi-hat and ride cymbal are also part of what propels musical rhythm, but the snare drum is usually the focal point of any drum kit.

Snare drums are used in everything from classical music to big band, jazz, country and rock. Think about some of the great drummers of the past—Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, John Bonham—and consider the role the snare drum played in their music. From amazing drum rolls to loud rim shots, the snare always seems to cut through the mix.

There are even bands like the rockabilly trio Stray Cats, whose drummer Slim Jim Phantom uses only two drums—a snare and a kick drum.

The snare drum is typically the most played drum in the kit. Its versatility allows the player to create many different sounds. Loosen the chain (snare) on the bottom (resonant) head, and you instantly have a completely different sound, like that of a timbale. The head can be loosened for a deeper sound or tightened for a higher pitched sound.

Triplets played with brushes a la Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” can create the effect of a train running down the tracks, while a single stroke hammering every fourth note accentuates the driving rhythms of drummer Charlie Watts that brought The Rolling Stones from London clubs to worldwide fame.

Watch an instructional video and most any drum teacher will begin by explaining the purpose of the snare drum and its place in the drum kit. But after a few hundred years of change and evolution, the snare drum has definitely earned its place in the history of drum playing.

References:

Drum Solo.cc: Buying a Snare Drum: The Center of our Universe by Greg Gaylord

Percussion Clinic.com: Snare Drum

Written by Toby Tate

Toby Tate is a performing musician, songwriter and studio engineer from northeastern North Carolina. Currently a freelance writer, Toby was a reporter and graphic designer for The Daily Advance newspaper for five years and has had stories and articles published in regional and national magazines and on the Internet. His first novel, DIABLERO, a supernatural thriller, will be released worldwide in October by Nightbird Publishing.

METADATA: title, tags and description

Google is a search engine that uses text-matching techniques to find web pages that are important and relevant to a user’s search. Replace “web pages” with “videos” and you have YouTube. The spiders that crawl your channel to index your video have no idea what your video is about except what you tell it. This is about optimizing your video to get the highest ranking. The YouTube keyword tool can get you started. One big difference between how people search on Google compared to YouTube is that on Google they search more for information, and YouTube for entertainment. Think about using adjectives with your key search terms that reflect that approach.

After you type your search word, YouTube, just like Google, has a drop down menu that makes a suggestion for the most common related words. This is great information to get you started as it supplies you with actual top search results.

Each video should add to your overall SEO based on keywords. Just like a blog post or website page, your video should be optimized for keywords. The goal is to get your video ranked on the first page and preferably above the fold. Being on page two means very few people see your video.

Title

The title is the most important as it supplies the most SEO juice. It also informs your viewer about what they are going to see and sets up expectations. The tendency is to put the title of your song in the… title. It works for the major artists because the labels have spent millions of dollars creating awareness for those song title. People search for those song titles. If your music hasn’t created that awareness then you will not get people searching for your title. So be descriptive instead. You have around 120 characters for your title before it gets truncated but it is weighted so keywords want to be at the front of the title. This is not about creating the next viral video hit but building an audience around you, your current songs and your future songs. It is not just a numbers game of how many viewers you can get but the quality of the viewer. You want to build an audience that will pay for your music and/or live performances.

Tags

Use keywords from your title and description. Write the tags thinking about a sentence but only with keywords. Don’t keyword stuff as YouTube might consider this spammy and don’t duplicate words as they will be edited out anyhow and you risk confusing the spiders.

Description

The first two lines are the most important. Not because they are weighted for optimization, but this is what the visitor sees and you need to entice them when they glance at your description. Common wisdom says to put your website URL first. I disagree. With the new layout on YouTube this description is taking up valuable real estate directly below the video and more people will read it. You haven’t earned my trust yet for me to leave YouTube and go visit your website. So I recommend you make those first two lines compelling enough to grab someone’s attention and help them decide to watch your video. Put your website and all other links (Facebook, Twitter, etc) in the body of your copy.

Brevity is not your friend here. A full description, you have about 1,000 characters, loaded with keywords will help you not only be findable but just as important help you end up in “relevant videos” which you see on the side of the page.

How to get into relevant videos

YouTube doesn’t disclose exactly how the algorithms work that determine which videos show up as relevant to other videos. At times you see a video that appears to be completely random but what they are doing is trying to expand the video experience by adding videos you might not otherwise ever discover.

Most importantly, the more video content you have, the more views you will get from your own related videos. Once you the viewer clicks on your title video, your other videos will appear in related videos. This exposes the viewer to more of your content leading to additional views from the same visitor.

Try experimenting with keywords to try and get into other popular and relevant related videos. Watch your own videos and see which related videos appear. Research their tags and descriptions to see if they have keywords you can add to have you show up in their relevant videos. What you can’t control is a users history and that will be a factor in what relevant videos show up in the side bar.

Test, Measure, Revise

None of this fixed. Through YouTube Insights you can analyze tons of data about your videos, including what search terms are working. Track your videos and experiment with keywords in all your metadata to find the ones that bring the best results. Research other videos to get new ideas on what is working and what isn’t. When you make a change in your metadata, allow time for YouTube to index your video’s as results are not immediate. Insight offers too much to go into here but check this out for more info.

Stay subscribed to read part 3.

Photo by Sean Blaney

With unlimited set up options available from all the drum manufacturers, why does the current trend seem to lean towards smaller set ups? When I say smaller set-ups, I am referring to the configuration…not necessarily the sizes of the drums. More and more touring bands as well as local drummers are using a four or five piece kit, meaning one up one down or one up two down. The first thing that comes to mind is you will be able to set-up and tear-down much quicker, and at 2 or 3AM, loading out as quickly as possible is important to most drummers.

You may think this idea may not be as significant to a touring band with a road crew, but the cost of cartage and backline rentals can rack up quickly, especially if the drummer has a larger kit.  There are a lot of bands doing what some people call, “U-haul tours”, meaning, living out of the back of a van and a U-Haul trailer full of gear.  There may not be enough space in that trailer for a six or seven piece drum set. When I was on a U-haul tour with my band, as we were running out of space, the first thing my band mates asked was “hey do you really need that second floor tom?” My point is that they always look to the drummer to make the sacrifice; they never ask the guitar players if they really need three guitars and the huge board of effects pedals.

Another issue is the size of the venue.  A lot of venues have tiny stages or the room itself is small, so a minimal set-up is perfect, especially if you are using a mini P.A. where you only mic the Bass drum. With that being said, your soundman will love you for bringing a small set up. It’s easier for them to mic up your kit, which leads to a quicker sound check and less time is needed to give you a “good mix.”  

Obviously this depends on how quickly you go through drum heads.  But the cost of drumheads is not getting any lower, so re-heading four or five drums is easier on the budget than seven or eight drums.  The fewer drums you use, the fewer heads you need to change over the lifetime of the set.

Let us know your thoughts and tell us how much more minimal your rig has become.