7 Simple Ways You Can Turn A Bad Grip Into A Good One
Key to the world. Source: azrainman
Last part in the grip series
By now you know why your grip is important, you know which grip you should be using, you know which part of your grip you have been overlooking and now... you can put all this information into action and turn your current grip into a new one that will allow you to take over the world (seriously).
So the first thing you need to do to change your bad grip into a good one is:
1. Learn
Make sure you have at least read my other articles in this series. But don't stop there. Look around for videos of your favourite drummers, go and see bands play live, ask questions to other drummers on Twitter. That's what I do. But my personal favourite is to get a teacher. Not only do you get to see their grip and technique but you can ask them specific questions and
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Why Your Drumstick Grip Is So Important
Grip is important. Source: beeto456
Drums are a weird instrument
With most other instruments you have to hold them or at least touch them in order to play them eg. guitar, saxophone, trumpet, harp, violin etc. But with drums (and percussion instruments in general) you don't actually touch them. On a drum kit you're either hitting things with sticks or pushing pedals with your feet. But you never come into contact with the drums or cymbals themselves.
So the main point of contact that you have with your instrument is your sticks. If you have a bad grip on your sticks then you'll play badly. This is why so many drummers recommend that you practise for hours on a pad because once you get control over your sticks then playing drums becomes so much easier.
Nick (one of my Facebook friends) suggested that I make holding drumsticks a blog topic. He rightly pointed out that
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How To Get A Louder, Fuller Snare Sound - The Rimshot
Evidence of rimshots
If you want it, you've got work for it
Getting the sound you really want isn't just a matter of hitting your drums as loud as possible and hoping for the best. You need to learn different techniques to give you the best sound.
In this article, we're not just talking about techniques though. We are going to hack into the actual physics of your snare drum in order to get the best possible sound out of it.
The physics of your snare
Normally when you play your snare, you hit the drum head (also called the drum skin) with the tip of your stick. This makes the drum head flex downwards which in turn pushes the air inside your drum down towards the
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Drummers, This Is How Your Wrist Works
Musical Wrists. Photo credit: firepile
If you only ever read 1 article on anatomy...
...make sure it's this one. Because when you can hack into how your wrist works and get it moving in the right way, you will notice huge differences in your playing. I know I did. More fluid grooves, faster fills and much more ease when you move around the kit. But before you can exploit this part of your body you need to understand how it works.
Your wrist is a complicated joint consisting of 8 bones. Although this gives you a lot of flexibility it does mean that there are a lot of movements to learn. This means you've got some reading, learning and practising to do. You not going to get all this straight away but... think about it. When was the last time
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How To Play Wrist Technique
The human body is not made to play drums
But with a bit of practice you can hack into its natural movements and exploit them for your own ends. Namely, drumming.
Take that inefficient human body!
In this post I will show you a great hack for improving your hand speed, power and sound.
The Hack
Try this:Find a table and place your forearm flat on it so that the pads of your fingers, palm of your hand, underside of your forearm and your elbow are on the table. Now move your arm so that your fingers and the palm of your hand are off the table. Done that? If you relax your wrist and hand it will flop down, your fingers will extend and point to the ground. When you pull your hand up with your wrist, your fingers will
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10 Things That Will Explode Your Drumming - Your Fingers
Photo credit: said&done
Your fingers are very important.
The front of your grip is formed when you pinch the stick between your index finger and thumb. The back of your grip is formed when you close your other 3 fingers (middle, third and pinky) around the stick. These fingers help guide the stick and make sure it doesn't fly off in any unwanted direction.
Taking these fingers off the stick is the surest way to lose control of what you're doing. If your other 3 fingers are not on the stick, then you get half the control over the stick that you should be getting. Half the control! Thats like
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