Consistent Rimshots

Hi everyone.
I have good and bad day with consistent rimshots. I do some single stroke exercises etc but what way is there to prc them neatly. I play traditional grip mostly.
My snare height is comfortable so far. for matched and traditional.
Thanx guys.
 
The obvious answer; consistent practice. I had trouble w/ them at first, also...but after months of hitting them repetitively, they began to become instinctual.

One thing I used to like to do is practice the "train beat", alternating hands to get nice, consistent rimshots w/ each hand.
 
Hello,
How I practiced it..? I play snare rudiments and whenever there are any accents, I deliberately play a rimshot there.. BOTH HANDS NECESSARILY.. like play RllrrLrrllRllrrLrrll....this way I got a lot of control over my hands making my mind decide where to place the rimshots thus less accidental rimshots and clean playing too...
once this thing is done, you can go on exploring how to vary the volume and intensity of high pitch created by a rimshot.. its like a whole world of different sounds that are possible then!

Hope this was useful..

Enjoy!
 
There's a lot to be said for setting up the drum in a way that's conducive to playing consistent rimshots. I personally don't have any die cast hoops on my snares and set them up instead with the thin 1.6 mm triple flange hoops so there's more natural flex and give which helps the rimshots to be consistent (especially at low volumes/velocity of stroke). I also don crank the heads too much since I want some give there as well. I go just as tight as necessary to articulate diddles pretty well in the center of the head.

I also use bigger sticks in the studio to get more inertia into the drum on every shot for consistency. Imagine trying to hit consistent shots with 7A's on a drum with a die cast hoop over a cranked head, I'm going for the opposite of that.

That's my story!
 
I play traditional grip about half the time, but I don;t generally do rimshots with traditional grip. Instead, I worked a 'half-assed' technique in to get rimshots by either playing the rimshot with my right hand or flipping over to matched on my left to get the rimshot.

I practiced flipping from matched to traditional very quickly instead of practicing rimshots with the left.

Something seemed theoretically wrong to play rimshots with traditional grip, so I just don't.
 
I think we must find its height and angle, that feels good.I want to keep their relatively low, so that my arm does not fall on the foot.And slightly oblique to me.I do not know if there is no shortcut.The recording can be truly useful,you can immediately see if rimshots are not consistent.
 
I suppose my biggest problem as a drummer is that I hardly ever practice anything (I know, lazy b'stard, waster, etc), but I have no problems with rimshots. I think there's a couple of reasons for this.
First off, I love rimshots, they're my default, as I'm a big fan of backbeat. This means I'm playing close to rimshots a lot of the time.
Second thing, (and probably the only useful bit of info here) I've always played with my snare tilted slightly away from me and slightly to the left. This means my hands fall naturally into a rimshot position, meaning that all I need to do is vary my hand height slightly. My right thigh is my reference point. If my hand contacts my thigh then it will be a rimshot, if raised above my thigh, then it will be a standard strike. Probably not good technique, but it works for me.
 
A method Pat Garvey taught me is to 'bury' the stick as he calls it, like you're trying to play through the drum rather than onto it, so when you do your rimshot leave the stick on the head and then for the next use a whip type motion (not a moeller whip) to bring the stick up and then back down for the next stroke. Since I've been doing that I've found that my back-beat has become a lot more consistent in dynamic and more locked into the time.

Hope that helps,

Kev
 
Burying the stick does seem to work for some, but personally I'd rather not take all that shock into my body on every two & four. Plus I wouldn't want to have to change my back beat if I want to play some ghost notes immediately afterwards.

That's just my take...
 
Burying the stick does seem to work for some, but personally I'd rather not take all that shock into my body on every two & four. Plus I wouldn't want to have to change my back beat if I want to play some ghost notes immediately afterwards.

That's just my take...

+1. Don't bury! If you sit down on your throne away from your kit and "air" drum your hand like you were playing backbeats, take note of how your hand looks at "impact." After you get an idea of this, set up your snare to accommodate the shape of the impact angle of your stick. This is another take on what others have said.

Flanged hoops do help, as does proper tuning. Sticks with a longer taper might help. Since you're coming in at the snare at a stronger angle (8 o'clock or so, using the traditional grip) you might also want to adjust the position of your hi-hat so your left hand isn't restricted.
 
Oh man, traditional grip rimshots are hard because with traditional grip you do more dropping and bouncing with the stick. Just practice, practice, practice.
 
Burying the stick does seem to work for some, but personally I'd rather not take all that shock into my body on every two & four. Plus I wouldn't want to have to change my back beat if I want to play some ghost notes immediately afterwards.

That's just my take...

I've personally never experience any shock from playing rimshots in that way, you need suprisingly little energy to get a lot of bang as it were. In terms of ghost notes I agree, and it's a method I only use when there's just solid back beat and no ghosties immediatley afterwards. I guess it's an extra tool in the bag as it were and allows you to colour the sound in a different way, as with all techniques you can get different timbres from them.

That is the wonderful thing with drumming, different players have different techniques that work for them and you can find many ways to do one thing just by watch other people play in their own way. I guess that's the inherent problem with technique questions, there's just so many different ways of going about things neither being any more or less valid than the others...but that's a whole different discussion aha.

Hope you're well,

Kev
 
Been a match grip player for 10+ years and I'm now trying to learn trad. grip. I feel your pain with those rimshots. Feels like they will never come, but progress is happening.

For match grip, I used to kind of cheat... well not really, cause I know for a fact that Jeff Porcaro played this way... that is, using your leg to figure out where the rim is at. At first this was fine as long as my hi-hat foot wasn't moving, but I would kind of lose it when I was opening the hi-hat at certain times.

I basically have the same position still but I've gotten to the point where I can do it no matter what my legs are doing. I can do whole fills where every note is a rimshot. I can do them on the toms, timbales, practice pad, right hand, left hand, wherever, even the hi-hat gets a flat-stick once in a while. You just get better the more you do it. It's like a double-stroke roll or something, at first you can only do it a certain way, like on a very bouncy surface. But after a few years, it shows up on your leg, or floor tom, etc. Playing in a dance band gave me 3 hours per night x 50 - 75 nights per year to hone 'the rimshot'. Now I don't even think about it.

Get used to where your snare height is. I bring a tape measurer to gigs to get the stool, snare, and hi-hat just right.

And to the guy who mentioned lower tuning and triple flange hoops. I totally agree! Makes it way easier.

p.s. don't you guys hate it when a mentally deficient guitarist says "rimshot" when they mean "crosstick." Me too!!! :)
 
p.s. don't you guys hate it when a mentally deficient guitarist says "rimshot" when they mean "crosstick." Me too!!! :)

YES! YES! YES! someone who feels the pain.

About getting consistent rimshots, the more familiar you are with your drums, the more 'consistent' your rimshots will be. The tape measure idea wasn't too bad.
 
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