Breaking sticks... Good? Bad?

[drummer_of_system_32]

i've never broken a stick, yet a few of my drummer m8s have. they tell me that not breaking one 'isnt a good thing'. now i disagree, but this is mainly because im self taught and they all had lessons. just wanted to know what you guys think.

[Royal]

yet a few of my drummer m8s have. they tell me that not breaking one 'isnt a good thing'. .


Ask them why.....tell us what they answer.

[bballdrummer34]

I've haven't broken a stick in YEARS. Not since marching band ....

[LayinDown]

I've been drumming for close to four years. I would say that I broke about 8 pair of sticks in my first two years of drumming, but literally can't remember the last time I broke a stick. I personally don't think it's any coincidence that as I've gotten better, my sticks have remained intact. :)

[drumbandit]

I don't understand why it wouldn't be a good thing, carry on not breaking them!!!! Why is it that because they have lessons, they think you should have broken one?

Tom

[razorx]

there are time when i dont break sticks at all and then all of the sudden they will start breaking like crazy. I don't understand it.

[Joe P]

It all depends. How do you hit your hi-hat [and other cymbals]? How many rimshots do you regularly do? How hard do you hit? How often do you play? How thick are your sticks? It can even go down to "Where is the balance point on the stick?

[blade123]

I mainly chisel sticks down to toothpicks before I "break" one. I keep most of my sticks intact.

[harryconway]

When I was bashing away doin' the "hard rock thang", I'd break sticks all the time, in the rehearsal room. I could feel the stick, almost say, "won't make it thru the next song", and 90% of the time I was right. But I've never dropped a stick on stage, and I've rarely broken a stick on stage. Because I usually start out with a brand new pair of sticks (or close to it). So maybe that's what your m8s mean, breaking (using a stick "all the way" up) is a good way to practice the "recovery", in case it happens during a performance. Or maybe their just nuts. Many drummers are.

[k3ng]

ahh the classic discussion of stick breakage.

Breaking is neither good nor bad. It's NORMAL. Sticks are made of wood. And wood hitting metal will obviously result in the wood breaking eventually. Just a matter of time. If your sticks last forever then there's something really strange. But that doesn't mean you need breakage every 5 weeks or something. You'll eventually break a really worn out one in a couple of years. Yes they can last that long.

I myself have broken close to 4 pairs only in 10 years of playing.

Breaking sticks cannot be an identification to what's good or bad. However, EXCESSIVE breaking is something to watch out for. If you're sticks are breaking the moment you lay your hands on them, either you're way too brutal on them or you have dangerous hands that destroy anything they touch. =P

Cheers.

[Byrneondrums]

I would say that breaking sticks or cymbals or heads is indicative of poor technique. I have been laying for over 25 years and have not broken a stick since the end of my first 6 months of playing. At that time I was just bashing away. You can create an incredible amount of volume from a set of drums and play with all of your heart without breaking equipment

That being said, I am sure that there are great players in the world today making their living playing the drums that break sticks all the time, so . . . . . . no big deal if you do. What always matters is making whatever music you are playing the best it can be.

Ciao,
Byrneondrums

[oldrockdrummer]

I never break sticks and i play very loud. Its all about how you hit the drums. most drummers usually wear the stick out long before it breaks. Tiger Woods hits the golf ball 400 yards and doesnt break his clubs. Berry Bonds breaks very few bats ect....

[The Keith Moon]

I am self tauight as well, in fact, watching Keith Moon Play. I am not into other drummers even though they all play really great. I have broken so many sticks in the beginings but now not that much , not because of how I play, but because of the quality of the sticks.

In my Opinion, in drumming, breaking sticks as well is not a crime!

[Vinnysimmo]

Can't see why it would be a god thing, breaking sticks.
Ive broken one pair in 3 years by the way.

[Deltadrummer]

I mainly chisel sticks down to toothpicks before I "break" one. I keep most of my sticks intact.

I do the same thing

If you are breaking a lot of sticks either your sticks are crappy or your technique is. I also have broken about two of three sticks in as many years. If you are just bashing away with no technique, you're also probably breaking a lot of cymbals.

[Moon_Type_Drummer]

i really dont think that the teqnique you play with on the drums can ever be "crappy". everyone plays differently.
i break sticks all the time mainly because i play fast and hard. breaking sticks can be good or bad, bad mainly because a decent pair of sticks are relativley expensive, but it isnt a really bad thing, i think.

[The Keith Moon]

I agree with you 100%.
I think rare folks like us who follow Keith Moon, need special heads so that we can have fun in drumming.
In fact, Keith Moon had custom made heads for his kind of playing. May be thats why the Who drum sounds are really different back in the Moon era.

Personally I cant afford like Keith Moon, but I can afford at least to try play like him. What I do is I put kitchen rags on the snare and tom toms (I have a 3 piece, cant afford to get more), since I dont have the time and patience to tune the drums the way they tell in You tube.
I love the fat sound that I get... and the heads are way less damaged and lasts longer too.... easy!!

[pxf446]

i usta brake stick kind of a lot but i play hardcore, so i bought the ahead light rock sticks unscrewed the heads and slid off the plastic coating and ive broken 1 stick in like 2 years, there so lite and fast i would never use crummy wood sticks again.

[Royal]

I really like the feel & look of new sticks.

I'm always buying far too many sticks...(I never get to really use each pair enough to whittle them down).
I could cook dinner over a campfire every night for a week with the amount of sticks I've got. Band members take the piss...I don't care.
But I'm not proud...it's nuts.

I also like the look of shiny(as opposed to just clean )cymbals...& the look of new skins. That's another story.
Yep...I guess sad is the word.

[pxf446]

i usta brake stick kind of a lot but i play hardcore, so i bought the ahead light rock sticks unscrewed the heads and slid off the plastic coating and ive broken 1 stick in like 2 years, there so lite and fast i would never use crummy wood sticks again.

[Moon_Type_Drummer]

I do the same thing

If you are breaking a lot of sticks either your sticks are crappy or your technique is. I also have broken about two of three sticks in as many years. If you are just bashing away with no technique, you're also probably breaking a lot of cymbals.


actually, i have a friend who plays and its RIDICULOUS. hes got one broken splash cymbal he still uses, and a table full of broken sticks, but hes still one of the best drummers I know.
his playing is just so INTENSE. he gets into it and whales on his kit and the sticks just break.

[mrchattr]

This was already discussed recently, but I'll toss my two cents in again.

There is nothing wrong with breaking sticks. I saw Art Blakey shatter sticks when I saw him play live. More than any other drummer I've ever seen...and you can't tell me Art had bad technique.

I think a lot of it has to do with the style you play. I break a stick every few shows with my band Pulse, but I play HARD with them. When I'm doing musicals or jazz, I don't really ever think I've broken even one stick. So it just depends. It's not like my technique suddenly gets bad when I play with Pulse...it doesn't.

I play out 12-15 times a month. Couple that with at least 4-8 rehearsals a month, with the average gig being four hours, and the average rehearsal lasting 6-8 hours, and you are talking about A LOT of abuse of sticks. They will break. It's not a "good" thing, but it's not a "bad" thing either.

The only way you can truly say it's "bad" is financially. It used to be bad for me that way, but then I got an endorsement deal, so it's not!

Also, I've never met a professional rock drummer who thinks it's "bad" to break sticks. I think some people need to realize that just because THEY don't do something, it's not necessarily "bad" or "wrong" or a "sign of bad technique." .

[yenraBdellikI]

I've been playin' for three years and had never broken a stick until about 6 weeks ago. The top part split in two. Then I got the same kind of sticks as replacements (Vic Firth 2B Nylons), and the same thing happened two weeks later. Won't be using those anymore.

[votard]

I broken less sticks than when I started, but that was because I don't think I ever had a vic firth when I started. Then I caught on and now I use vic firths, and not much else if I ever do use anything else. I few pairs of this one type, the guy said that it was the leftovers from a really good company that didn't get sold, so the oddbatch I guess. One of the sticks broke on the first hit, I think mostly because the the wood grain. Moral: don't buy drumsticks on sale.

[B.C.]

where I play rock constantly when playing with my band and the rest playing jazz in my individual practice, I break sticks constantly cause of all the rimshots I hit, and usually dead on the exact same spot. If I don't break a pair at a live show then I will get out from behind my kit and break them over my knee, and chuck them, LOL

[ExPLiciT]

i break a pair of sticks every week. take it i whittle them down till they have nothing to do but break. 10 dollars a week is quite alot of money but i really dont have much choice. i have relatively good technique and believe it has nothing to do with technique but more along the lines what style you play and how loud you play. and it depends how you hit your hi hat/ cymbals( with the tip or the side of the stick) and either of those techniques come along the line of what you are playing and how loud you need it be again. i mostly play with the side of the stick on the hi hat but when the situation calls i can play with the tip too.

[mhanon13]

dude, when I started playing drums, I developed a bad habit... a bad technique... and I used to break my sticks and drum heads lots of times... and i injured my hands sometimes...

why?

because I did not have a loose grip, i thought it was baseball so my grip was very hard... when you dont have a loose grip (which you should always have, so that you let the stick to come back, "free stroke technique") you will break your sticks and drum heads... ...

when I started to have some formal lessons from a professional drummer, he was so :O!!!
he told me, you got a great 4-limb independence... but you done have a good grip, and he corrected me the bad technique... since then, i havent broken any stick, neither drum head in LONG time...

so the fact that you dont break sticks is that you are striking pretty well those drumheads!

[Big_Philly]

I've played for 12 years and only broke 2 or 3 pairs of sticks. The last stick I broke was on an e-kit though. It was an oak stick.
I tend to replace my sticks when the tip loses little splinters. Or when I'm short on spare sticks as soon as I hear that the tip is no longer in good condition.

[charliemoore]

i break about 1 stick per month but i play rock and i like to hit them hard! its just much more fun!

but i cannot bare to throw sticks away broken or not i have a bucket full of broken sticks in my garage that i wont throw away becuase each stick has a story ..... how sad is that!!

plus if you were a stick broken or not you wouldnt want to be thrown away haha!

[Leadfoot]

It depends on the style of music you play more than your technique. I play in two bands. In one, I whittle them down to nothing, in the other, I break lots of them. I have a wastebasket in my garage for them, they make great garden stakes.

[h3r3tic]

Hey there! =)

Here's my personal view about if breaking sticks is good or bad:

So I've been drumming since 15 and I'm turning 23 this year which means that I've been playing for almost 8 years. So in the beggining without having any lessons, I used to break a lot of sticks. And I don't mean 1 pair a week but maybe 1 pair each time me and my band used to reahearse.

First I thought it was because of the sticks because I used to play with 7A's when I first started, so later on I moved to bigger ones like 2A's but I was still breaking the sticks everytime we would rehearse.

When I was turning 20 I decided to get some drum lessons but they were a little bit expensive at that time so I skipped that option and thought that maybe there's free lessons on the web.

So the first lesson I ever got was Derrick Pope's video about the moeller technique and a little bit of the free stroke (A MUST SEE!).
After watching this video I said to myself "I never knew how to hold a stick afterall !". So before watching this video, I used to grip the sticks so hard and hit the drums so hard that eventually the sticks would be break so many times.

And the thing that amazed me most was that the sticks were lasting 6 months of practcing with the band. lol I couldn't believe how stupid I was on gripping the sticks to tight. and another thing that amazed me was the sound that I was getting from the drums. It blew my mind, specially on rimshots!

So the key fore making the sticks last longer is to:

-> not grip the sticks harder speccially holding the stick at it's butt;
-> let the stick rebound! the same thing goes for rimshots!
-> most important when hitting a drum: DO NOT BURY THE STICK ON THE DRUMHEAD!

That's the key!

So breaking sticks is a normal thing, just like someone said in this thread about hitting wood against metal... yeah I agree! but breaking sticks every week?!...well... something's wrong...

They'll lest much more longer!!

Good thread guys!

[Ian Ballard]

Something I learned from my lessons way back with Chad Wackerman; You can only hit a drum so hard before it actually RAISES in pitch and sounds like crap. This is because you are literally stretching the head with your kinetic energy. There is no point in hitting so hard, your drums sound like crap. None at all.

I guess after I had to budget myself and the price of sticks went up, I realized that breaking them was stupid. Besides, once you develop good Moeller techniqes, you'll never need to put access energy into the stroke.

Anymore, I don't break sticks at all, but the tips chip. I use sticks forever, since having children and real responsibilities doesn't afford you the option of buying sticks all the time.

So, if you want to hurt yourself, break sticks and make your drums sound like dirt, keep hitting like Dave Grohl. Otherwise watch some Vinnie and see how you can generate power without bashing like an ogre.

[jay norem]

I would have thought that breaking anything is bad. I mean, we try to avoid breaking things, don't we?

[NOMEANSNO]

hit em like ya mean it, i break a few sticks but then again i play in a quite an aggressive band so i real hit em. I sometimes get a tad over exited.

[aydee]

I would have thought that breaking anything is bad. I mean, we try to avoid breaking things, don't we?

Well, sometimes we have to break barriers, conventions...

[Derek]

[QUOTE=Moon_Type_Drummer;441516]i really dont think that the teqnique you play with on the drums can ever be "crappy". everyone plays differently.


Oh, how far from the truth is that first sentence...

[petelawless]

Pretty obvious, but It depends which size, weight, length stick you use, and what you use it for. Experiment.

[NUTHA JASON]

i break 2 or 3 sticks a weekend. i hit hard and do a lot of rimshots.breaking sticks is neither a good nor a bad thing but it is expensive sheesh!

[SickRick]

Since I switched to Moeller and Freestroke (around 8 years back), I've hardly broken any sticks. If you watch the Vids of the liveperformance of my band, you'll see that I hit quite hard and use lots of rimshots. Anyhow - the switch of technique and loosening up the grip really helped.

Another part of it are the VicFirth sticks - they just never ever seem to break, sound fantastic, feel great and are just the perfect pair :)

Sorry, but I really have to advertise them....

Well - before I played with that loose grip I broke sticks on a daily basis which was quite expensive (at one point it got so expensive that I had to quit smoking because I had to choose in between buying sticks or cigs.... so after all: Breaking sticks can also have a good side to it :) )

[boomboomda]

(at one point it got so expensive that I had to quit smoking because I had to choose in between buying sticks or cigs.... so after all: Breaking sticks can also have a good side to it :) )

Well, at least you didn't decide to stop drumming to afford cigarettes.

[Salicete]

Sticks and heads are where the rubber meets the road, and just like tires, will wear out over time.

Also just like driving, and tire life, your technique, or lack thereof, will have a substantial impact on how long your sticks last.

[toddy]

I got a batch of these dire Stagg drum sticks for free, I could literally bend them when they were brand new by applying a little pressure.

Thank god for vic firth.