STICK TWIRLING AND SHOWMANSHIP TECHNIQUE.

chino_Ocio

Member
Hello, I've been a drummer for almost 8 years, and through all that time, I've been only focusing on my technique. Recently I saw a portion of the Thomas lang DVD and realized how a little showmanship can take your grooves to the next level. Can someone help me and show me different stick twirling techniques??? PS... I play traditional grip. Thx!!
 
Re: Stick Twirling

its a kind difficult to teach from here, i saw thomas lang dvd and i can do real twirl, fake twirl, and the helicopter, the buddy rich stick trick and some others, the only thing you have to do is practice, in 3 days you can achieve the real twirl and the fake is too easy
 
Re: Stick Twirling

my advice is really simple. regardless of which of the many twirling techniques you encorporate.

here's what you do.

get a dowel stick. i used one that was roughly the same thickness as a 7a drumstick but almost twice the length. i began spinning really slowly. letting the momentum of the stick do the work while my fingers grew accustomed to the pattern and feel of it. then after about a week i cut off about 10 cm of dowel. and so on until the dowel was nearly as long as a drumstick (in about three weeks) then i used an old 3a stick and twirled while i was stuck in traffic or watching tv. Slowly i built up speed. the crucial thing is twirling during playing tho. so i began identifying simple fills which i could do with one hand and my bassdrum while my other hand twirled.
aslo have a look at john blackwell's dvd. he introduces a fake twirl which took me one day to learn and incorporate.
j
 
Re: Stick Twirling

yea you really need to be shown how to do it but if you feed it through all your fingers you can do what lang does when he does that groove while spinnin his sticks on the hat and snare, well thats what i do, the buddy stick trick is easy to learn but try asking your teacher or someone to show you some cool stuff
 
Re: Stick Twirling

MY FATHER GIVES ME BLACKWELL'S DVD as a gift i think he plays cool song but he has many mistakes in that dvd, you have to watched good and you notice his mistakes, and i feel that he repeats too many times some fills and stuffs and that i dont really like it, maybe im wrong in saying that he is a bad drummer but i dont like him
 
Re: Stick Twirling

Take a look at 'Drumstick Spinology' by Steve Stockmal. It's a book that comes with a DVD. He goes pretty in-depth!
 
Re: Stick Twirling

I use stick twirling sometimes in my drumming. But i find that it is better to not use alot. It cann really mess up a beat by twirling. Once you get it down it looks really cool though. My advice is to just practice twirling a stick in one hand while your laying in bed. Then the next day try and add it in to your drumming.
 
Re: Stick Twirling

Jeff Queen, on vic firth`s website, has a lot of stick tricks, like waliking teh dog or hitting the head with the back of your stick
 
Re: Stick Twirling

Stick tricks when used thoughtfully can really develop the feel of a groove and help you keep time through pauses. They can serve many purposes other than just showmanship.
 
Re: Stick Twirling

I used to really like stick twirling. I even have a book/dvd called "Drumstick Spinology" and it was cool and all, but I sort of grew out of it. I use it for some things, and some of the spins have helped my playing in creating various techniques, but the big, flashy spins, quite frankly, are used a lot to divert viewers from their lackluster drumming performances. Call it cynical but that's what I think.
 
Re: Stick Twirling

Big_Drummer said:
john blackwell's dvd sucks is one of the worse drummers that i watched.

Is his DVD as bad as your grammar? I look forward to your DVD, when you'll finally show us all how it should be done.

=-)


.
 
Re: Stick Twirling

Rudy McRudster said:
I used to really like stick twirling. I even have a book/dvd called "Drumstick Spinology" and it was cool and all, but I sort of grew out of it. I use it for some things, and some of the spins have helped my playing in creating various techniques, but the big, flashy spins, quite frankly, are used a lot to divert viewers from their lackluster drumming performances. Call it cynical but that's what I think.

Yeah, that is pretty true.

I still reckon it's cool to be able to do it even if you don't use it that much.
 
Re: Stick Twirling

LDGuy said:
Yeah, that is pretty true.

I still reckon it's cool to be able to do it even if you don't use it that much.

Yeah, it's always nice when you can show off to your friends with a stick or something.
 
Re: Stick Twirling

its part of the whole package. its too easy to program a realistic drum sound ... we could become obsolete as musicians ... but we are not. why? because people love us. they love the idea of us. they love to see us. so we must be more than a drumbeat. we must be a show. we are entertainers first and formost. stick twirling is important.

j
 
Re: Drumstick Spinning!

I agree that the visual thing is important, but I'm actually fairly anti-twirling. It's kind of hackneyed, to be honest, and as a casual music listener / guitarist before I started playing the drums I used to think it was just lame. I learned to do it at music school - no tapping in class, had to do something with my hands - but I've never bothered learning to incorporate it into my playing.

I'm of the feeling that there's a million other, non-twirling visual tricks we can do that might be actually cool rather than just a cliche that's been part of "show off" drumming for decades... ?uestlove was good at this, he managed to do a fairly hilarious parody of Michael Jackson's dancing while sitting down and playing during a cover of Smooth Criminal. Good to watch, but not twirling...
 
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