Tips for increasing stick control?

SamCronenberg

Junior Member
I was wondering if anyone could help me out, I need some sort of lesson, technique, or really just any tips on how to increase my stick control. Any tips would be appreciated, because though I have been playing for close to seven years now, I never had any formal lessons. Thanks!
 
May sound redundant, but practice practice practice and get a teacher. You don't have to go every week, just save $50 up, take a lesson, save up another $50 and take another one a month or so later.
 
And get Jojo's DVD. Incredible tool for hand technique.
 
Buy George L. Stone's book "Stick Control for the Snare Drummer" and start playing the excercises just as is reccomended in the book, or you can go to the Stick Control thread on the forum and see how other people practice it. If you can't read music, that's fine for now, the first excercises are all eighth notes anyway, and like Thomas Pridgen said, "even if you can't read, you can still tell your left from your right".

Once you get into some of the triplet stuff and whatnot, you can ask people here how to read them, or maybe you'll have gotten a teacher by then or ventured into learning how to read on your own.

Those excercises will broaden your vocabulary because they're sticking combinations much like rudiments (in fact, a lot of the first ones are paradiddles and inversions), they'll increase your stick control and coordination, and you'll slowly start picking up some reading ability. At least that's what I did, it was the first book i bought and helped me immensly.
 
do you know whats gladstone tehnique? free stroke?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cb75dgldnY

try this. play high stroke and try to use rebound so the stick comes back up. just let it comes back on his own even if it falls out of your hands, you must practice this

put metronom on 60 bpm. then play two strokes with right hand. then two strokes with the left (you must play high strokes) then 4 with left, 4 with right, then 6, 8 ,10, 12...and then 50.

IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE YOU MUST DO ALL AGAIN 2,4,6,...

this will really develop you



other exercise

put metronom on 60 bpm play 100 with left, 100 with right and then 100 single stroke
then put metronom on 64, then 68, then 72....(YOU MUST PLAY HIGH STROKE)

i do this every night before i go to sleep (on practice pad)
practice,...

this will develope your control but also strenght, power and endurace

good luck
 
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Try using heavy sticks on a pad (such as metal sticks or the thick corps sticks). A useful exercise is to go through the rudiments, to where you can play each rudiment 20 times steadily at any of a range of tempos (CLEANLY! Don't sell yourself short!).
 
The one thing I work on most is the drum stroke. I think it takes a lifetime to master. A drummer needs to have a great stroke, with superb dynamic control so he can play everything from the quietest ghost note to the loudest rimshot, and everything in between, at any time, without even thinking about it. For me this is accomplished by exercises such as gripping the drumstick as you normally do, then squeezing the hell out of it, and with zero forearm movement, (matched grip) do single strokes from the wrist while squeezing as hard as you can maintain to both build and stretch your drumstick holding muscles. Aim to make the muscles burn. Of course during actual playing, relax relax relax. Another great tip I learned from a teacher is to imagine a length of string strung between your 2 sticks. Now imagine this imaginary string stapled to the snare drumhead, loose enough so it can slide underneath. So when you raise 1 stick away from the head, it will pull the other stick towards the head. This will give you an incredibly even single stroke roll. For me stick control = hand exercises while doing single strokes at different speeds.
 
I've literally become obsessed with technique in the last year...mostly due to a few very helpful friends here on the DW forums.

I've worked my ass off of my free stroke, Moeller, and rudimental exercises. I've agonized over my grip.

Combine these things and through regular practice it's amazing what can be achieved.
 
A quick fix for improving your stick technique is playing your rudiments and keeping within a distance of 2" from the drum head, all wrists. Do this for about a week and it will improve your stick control without a doubt.
 
Try this-

Play 4 sixteenth notes as singles- called "The Cehck" (RLRL RLRL RLRL RLRL)
Then this sticking pattern- RRRL RRRL RRRL RRRL
Then The Check
Then this pattern- RLLL RLLL RLLL RLLL
Then The Check
Then doubles- RRLL RRLL RRLL RRLL
Then The Check
Then put them all together- RRRL RLLL RRLL RLRL

This exercise is all about making everything sound the same. Try to get it to where someone else can close their eyes and not tell which hand is play. This exercise is appropriatly name "Stick Control"
 
JOJO MAYER´S SECRET WEAPONS FOR THE MODERN DRUMMER!!!!!!!!!

Definitely. That DVD is inimitable in terms of finger technique & stick control. It's not the most entertaining drum video I've ever seen, but it's not supposed to be. If you're serious, get some heavyweight sticks, and sit in front of the DVD with a practice pad.

Derrick Pope has some great free videos on drum technique including Moeller and Heel-Toe. Do a search on Drummerworld main site.
 
The one thing I work on most is the drum stroke...For me this is accomplished by exercises such as gripping the drumstick as you normally do, then squeezing the hell out of it, and with zero forearm movement, (matched grip) do single strokes from the wrist while squeezing as hard as you can maintain to both build and stretch your drumstick holding muscles....

This is an interesting way of practicing...but I am not sure how it is related to a drum stroke, which for me is the way the entire arm moves when striking a drum.

What is the purpose of squeezing the stick and restricting your forearm movement? Many of the muscles and connective tissue that move the wrist are located in the forearm.

Restricting your forearm movement may not be the best way to practice your drum stroke, since you are leaving a key part of it (the forearm) out of the movement.

Regards,

Alex
 
The one thing I work on most is the drum stroke. I think it takes a lifetime to master. A drummer needs to have a great stroke, with superb dynamic control so he can play everything from the quietest ghost note to the loudest rimshot, and everything in between, at any time, without even thinking about it. For me this is accomplished by exercises such as gripping the drumstick as you normally do, then squeezing the hell out of it, and with zero forearm movement, (matched grip) do single strokes from the wrist while squeezing as hard as you can maintain to both build and stretch your drumstick holding muscles. Aim to make the muscles burn. Of course during actual playing, relax relax relax. Another great tip I learned from a teacher is to imagine a length of string strung between your 2 sticks. Now imagine this imaginary string stapled to the snare drumhead, loose enough so it can slide underneath. So when you raise 1 stick away from the head, it will pull the other stick towards the head. This will give you an incredibly even single stroke roll. For me stick control = hand exercises while doing single strokes at different speeds.

Egads! Are you serious? *Squeeze* the stick as hard as possible? This is a sure-fire list of instructions on how to end up with a chronic injury. I'm not trying to bust your horns I just think it's really bad advice.

I hope you were just trying to be funny?
 
Check:
Carmine Appice: The Ultimate Realistic Rock Drum Method / Book - with Audio-CD.
(Take a look, on Carmine's hands and fingers).
 
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Didn't have time to read other posts (sorry) so not sure if your problem is solved, but one thing that I did to practice stick control, and stick speed along with it, are some of my marching band exercises (they are good for ANY drummer no matter how experienced because even if you are the fastest drummer in the world, you can still get faster via increasing tempo) (also practice with a metronome or you will likely get no better =P)

First Exercise:
you got simple eights. (we will just say upper case is eighth note, lower-case is sixteenth)

RRRRRRRR LLLLLLLL RRRRRRRR LLLLLLLL R (release note is not accented)

start out with this going slow at first, then speeding up. A good drummer can play things slow as well, so work on that (something I personally struggle with)

Next exercise is one I kind of made up to practice my stick speed, but im sure it could be applied to accuracy as well

rlrl RR lrlr LL rlrlrlrl RRRR lrlrlrlr LLLL rlrlrlrlrlrlrlrl RRRRRRRR lrlrlrlrlrlrlrlr LLLLLLLLL


(also, if you have trouble with accurate paradiddles, you can apply that to the exercise as well, but of course you have to change the sticking with the pattern to: rlrr LL so that you don't hit the drum four times with your right hand)

All of this is assuming that by stick control you mean accuracy. If you mean your stick is flying out of your hand then you need to adjust grip XD. But I am pretty sure you meant accuracy, so I hope that I helped.
 
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Egads! Are you serious? *Squeeze* the stick as hard as possible? This is a sure-fire list of instructions on how to end up with a chronic injury. I'm not trying to bust your horns I just think it's really bad advice.

I hope you were just trying to be funny?

There's a little blurb about this in the beginning of Stick Control. Seems this technique is nothing knew. Stone says "neither myself or any musicians has any need of it."
 
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