Stick in snare hand - butt or tip?

When playing a kit, how do you typically hold your snare stick?

  • Tip hits the batter

    Votes: 69 74.2%

  • Butt hits the batter

    Votes: 10 10.8%

  • Varies by stick size

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • Varies by volume requirement

    Votes: 10 10.8%

  • Varies by sound requirement

    Votes: 21 22.6%

  • Butt end on the kit, but tip on snare-only gigs (ex: orchestral)

    Votes: 2 2.2%
  • Total voters
    93
jda said:
I haven't seen Steve do that very often. Post something where he does..
when I think of "old" I think of Purdie's usage (not Gadd)
But let me see something. I do recall a little seeing Gadd do it but 1% out of 99.
Oh later with Eric C or Paul Simon I bet
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Someone told me that and I don't remember who. I may be wrong.
 
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I hold the butt and stick with my tip out.
 
I use butt end on the snare a lot, but not all the time. I don't think it's purely volume, its just that for some situations you need to lay into the snare a hair more, and sometimes you need the stick to rebound just a little different. Somehow rimshots feel more natural with the butt end, like, you don't have to account for the tip being narrower than the butt? For me, at least, it's not a conscious thing- but when it's wrong its wrong and I absolutely need to switch as soon as possible. Just the thought of doing a buzz roll with the butt end of a stick makes me queasy.

Maybe it makes a difference that I use SD1 Boleros, so I have a big fat butt, and a teeny tiny tip. Just the opposite as real life ;)
 
I almost always play with the butt end but sometimes I'll use the tip too. The action is way different, I can do more stuff using the butt end, but sometimes I need the tip action too. I can crush backbeats easier with the tip.
 
Aside from a few moments during practice many years ago, I don't ever remember hitting the snare (or anything else) with the butt of the stick. But now that a pro drummer and a few others are doing it, I may give it a try.
 
20 years ago I saw my drum teacher doing it with a well known jazz ensemble, and when he called me to sub for him I played like he did. This was not anything he showed us in the music hall, but he did it every time I saw him perform live.

Now, I am almost exclusively a butt hitter 🤔 with matched, even at low volume, and 60/40 butt/tip 😶 traditional. Unless I'm doing some uber light comping in the most reflective room in the world, it's butt out.

I believe the butt really shines at low volume where drums can sound a little tinny when struck delicately.

That's all the butt stuff I have for today.
 
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I hadn't really thought about butt-out for cross sticking till I read this thread, now I gotta try that, next gig, and see if I like that better. Cool...
 
jaymandude said:
What i want to know is the guys who dont play butt end cross sticks ? How do you not hear the difference? Or did anyone not show you ? Its just strange to me , that's all :)
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There's a sweet spot where the stick clicks sound very robust and nearly woodblock-like- just like when the stick's turned around- so much so that I've occasionally been asked to not do it, because someone felt the sound should be more subtle. Did no one show you? 😁 I've got the technique/position down well enough that the consistency results in a small worn spot where the butt end of the stick wears the coating. For a couple of decades (according to him), the leader of the jazz ensemble at East Carolina University made every drummer turn the stick around for rim clicks because of the less-robust sound, until me; he never noticed I wasn't doing it until he happened to look right at it one day, and between songs (in class), he asked how I was able to do it. I showed him, and he never asked me to turn the stick around again.
 
There are a few songs where I like a fatter sound and use butt ends on both hats and snare. Otherwise, it's stick tip on the snare.
 
timmdrum said:
There's a sweet spot where the stick clicks sound very robust and nearly woodblock-like- just like when the stick's turned around- so much so that I've occasionally been asked to not do it, because someone felt the sound should be more subtle. Did no one show you? 😁 I've got the technique/position down well enough that the consistency results in a small worn spot where the butt end of the stick wears the coating. For a couple of decades (according to him), the leader of the jazz ensemble at East Carolina University made every drummer turn the stick around for rim clicks because of the less-robust sound, until me; he never noticed I wasn't doing it until he happened to look right at it one day, and between songs (in class), he asked how I was able to do it. I showed him, and he never asked me to turn the stick around again.
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Nice :). You must be the only guy on the planet to have figured that out. Everyone else's sounds weak :)
 
timmdrum said:
There's a sweet spot where the stick clicks sound very robust and nearly woodblock-like- just like when the stick's turned around- so much so that I've occasionally been asked to not do it, because someone felt the sound should be more subtle. Did no one show you? 😁 I've got the technique/position down well enough that the consistency results in a small worn spot where the butt end of the stick wears the coating. For a couple of decades (according to him), the leader of the jazz ensemble at East Carolina University made every drummer turn the stick around for rim clicks because of the less-robust sound, until me; he never noticed I wasn't doing it until he happened to look right at it one day, and between songs (in class), he asked how I was able to do it. I showed him, and he never asked me to turn the stick around again.
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Did you study with Mark Ford
 
When I was younger, I would play butt end with both sticks. I play the tip but with larger sticks now.
 
jaymandude said:
Nice :). You must be the only guy on the planet to have figured that out. Everyone else's sounds weak :)
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:unsure: No, just the first one to do it well enough to get away with it in Jazz Ensemble. 🤷‍♂️
 
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