How hard do you hit?

I have never really thought about how hard I hit until recently. During sound check at gigs they say "hit the snare" I do, "ok now really hit it like you're playing" I was? I have also never broken a head, and don't break sticks that often. I guess I play relatively lightly? The drummer in my favorite band (CKY) says he breaks heads, and cymbals all the time because he hits so hard. There was also an article in DRUM! recently talking about the hardest hitters of all time. So how hard do you guys think you hit? Any advantages/disadvantages?

I would hope that a single dynamic level of hit wouldn't describe my playing in totality - even if I was a metal player, and I'm not. ( Derek Roddy would bear me out on this ).

Ali's axiom " float like a butterfly & sting like a bee comes to mind...
 
Thanks for the kind words! That is easily the most "metal" thing I've ever done, so it's nice to see I was somewhat convincing!
Way more than convincing Mike, I'd say a real breath of fresh air. No sloppy "whoops I've just stepped in a puddle" triggered kicks and superb late 70's fast tom intro. Reminds me very much of Prairie Prince style tom rhythm approach and that, IMO, is a very good thing.

42, Ha!!! You haven't even started to slow down yet & good on you for being a proud back beat monster. Love it! I'm a muso first, drummer second. It just so happens that drums are the only thing I can express myself on with some credibility. I say, stuff technique, stuff appropriate, stuff all muso "I know best" posturing. The punters either like it, or they don't. It's either right or wrong. Who the hell, other than muso's, cares how it was constructed.

One advantage of progressing years, you get to play how, where & what you want without the giddy distraction of trying to "make it". Pity you're not old enough yet to get the full benefit. LOL!!!
 
I hit pretty damn hard, and with long, full swings. I don't go through heads, though, and I've yet to break a cymbal, so I suppose I'm doing at least something correctly. I do get blisters though, so it's clear that my hands are absorbing a fair amount of force when I play.
 
I hit pretty damn hard, and with long, full swings. I don't go through heads, though, and I've yet to break a cymbal, so I suppose I'm doing at least something correctly. I do get blisters though, so it's clear that my hands are absorbing a fair amount of force when I play.

this is basically how i like to do things, hit as hard as i can with the minimum amount of damage.
 
Yeah, that's a good video of how NOT to play your cymbals...
Well... not if you want them to last for any length of time, anyway! I wonder if he thinks hitting a cymbal with two sticks will make it twice as loud? Or maybe for some flam effect...

Silly as it might sound, I still like watching him play in kind of a can't-take-my-eyes-off-the-train-wreck sort of way. And I also think he's a pretty good drummer - appropriate for the styles he's doing.

Here's another clip of him that I find interesting. He's just goofing off having fun - I honestly think he has a lot of fun playing - but it shows that he's had some formal training. Then it looks like he's actually tracking that snare part (cleanly executed, btw) and keeping the first take. He doesn't go back to review it - he's on the next thing. I admire that. He's really focused and a hard worker.

Of course, I'm not a fan of any of the bands I've heard him in, and fortunately I never saw his TV show, so I can't hate him for that...
 
Well... not if you want them to last for any length of time, anyway! I wonder if he thinks hitting a cymbal with two sticks will make it twice as loud? Or maybe for some flam effect...

For the visual effect, I believe. He's "performing" as much as he is playing. One of the problems with being the drummer in a high-energy band is that while the rest of the band is running all over the stage the drummer's kinda stuck in place. Travis makes up for it by going BERZERK on the throne.

I'm not a big fan of his, but I respect him.
 
How hard do I hit? That hard LMAO, Sometimes real hard,sometimes real soft, whatever the song,room,etc. entails.

Bonzolead
 
Exactly! You just cannot get that sound without hitting the drums hard.

I don't know if it's necessarily the sound, but the performance and the energy that playing like that creates. The sound, if anything, would sound worse due to the volume threshold of the drums being exceeded and the drums choking up as a result. You can play at mezzoforte and still get a great sound out of the drums, but if you play without swinging your entire arms and banging your head, you're never going to have the same feel, and THAT'S the important thing, IMHO...
 
I don't know if it's necessarily the sound, but the performance and the energy that playing like that creates. The sound, if anything, would sound worse due to the volume threshold of the drums being exceeded and the drums choking up as a result. You can play at mezzoforte and still get a great sound out of the drums, but if you play without swinging your entire arms and banging your head, you're never going to have the same feel, and THAT'S the important thing, IMHO...
Sometimes the choked, boxy sound is what's appropriate for the music. Much like palm muted guitars and clangy picked bass.
 
I don't hit very hard, but I've noticed as my technique has improved, I seem to be able to get more velocity out of the stick without a whole lot of the arm motion I used to.

The rimshot part of this discussion is very interesting. I have started to record my practice more and more. I have a little 8 track that allows me to record myself over the tunes I'm learning. While I'm playing the rimshot back beat, it sounds much louder to me, but when I play back the recording, it doesn't really sound that much louder, but it does sound different. of course. It really makes a shuffle come alive, for example.
 
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