Who can twirl their sticks?
- Thread starter Johnny2u2
- Start date
Drumolator
Platinum Member
I can, but I play mostly at church. It would not be appropriate. Peace and goodwill.
DrumEatDrum
Platinum Member
As a teenager in the 80s, learning to twirl seemed like a prerequisite to being a drummer. LoL. Plus it was something you could practice at night without disturbing anyone.
But then the 90s happened, and twirling fell out of favor. So I can, but I never really did it IN a band.
But then the 90s happened, and twirling fell out of favor. So I can, but I never really did it IN a band.
Johnny2u2
Active Member
dwsabianguy
Senior Member
I use it every once in a while. Depends on the gig, what I'm doing, what the vibe is, etc., but if I'm playing in a sort of flashy dance-y type band, I'll throw in some little twirls here and there as eye candy. You have to make sure your playing doesn't suffer from it, but a little bit of showmanship never hurt nobody.
Ransan
Senior Member
That is a gimmick in the auxiliary ‘stick department’. 😂
s1212z
Silver Member
Both can be highly inappropriate in the wrong setting but you can scream ‘wooo!’ while doing it
SYMBOLIC DEATH
Senior Member
With the style of music I play there's no free time for that. Although I have done some unexpected stick spin/twirl/toss where I didn't lose the stick and kept on my merry way without too much trouble.
iCe
Silver Member
I'm a master of the fake twirl 
Rarely do it though and only proficient enough with my right hand. If i do it, it's most of the time a quick twirl before i fall into the song. Or during a quick break.
Besides that: i hardly do it, but if there is enough room above me i love to do a rimshot and propel the stick upwards after a song.
Rarely do it though and only proficient enough with my right hand. If i do it, it's most of the time a quick twirl before i fall into the song. Or during a quick break.
Besides that: i hardly do it, but if there is enough room above me i love to do a rimshot and propel the stick upwards after a song.
Naigewron
Platinum Member
Stick twirling is great fun.
My most used trick is flipping the stick backwards as I lift it up; I believe this is sometimes called the "gospel twirl". It's a really simple and effective little twirl that doesn't mess with your grip and is quick enough to do while lifting the stick off a snare hit or crash.
I also like the fake twirl, but I'm usually not comfortable enough to do that between hits.
Here's a clip from an old music video shoot where you can see the gospel twirl in action. Once the snare backbeat comes in, I do it a few times in a row when lifting my left hand off the snare
www.instagram.com
You can also kind of see it in this video, but the light show makes it hard to make out what's going on. It's a nice display of my rock moves in general though: Stick twirls, big arm movements, alternating hands on crash grooves, crossing my arms to hit two crashes and just generally pointing at the audience to get them engaged. We're on stage to entertain, after all, so it's important to never look boring or bored. Stick tricks can be a great tool to achieve that; it's no different than any other "rock moves" that other band members do. The difference is that they're standing up and can strut around, while the drummer needs to do other stuff to look cool.
Edit: I actually do a long fake twirl before I start to play too, I just noticed, at around the 14 second mark. The gospel twirling is probably most visible after 3:50
My most used trick is flipping the stick backwards as I lift it up; I believe this is sometimes called the "gospel twirl". It's a really simple and effective little twirl that doesn't mess with your grip and is quick enough to do while lifting the stick off a snare hit or crash.
I also like the fake twirl, but I'm usually not comfortable enough to do that between hits.
Here's a clip from an old music video shoot where you can see the gospel twirl in action. Once the snare backbeat comes in, I do it a few times in a row when lifting my left hand off the snare
Eskil on Instagram: "Flashback to a smoky music video shoot with @maliceinwonderlandofficial a few years ago. #maliceinwonderland #livefortoday #musicvideo #smokemachine #drumcam #bts #mapex #mapexsaturn #rockdrummer #sticktricks #drum #drummers #tr
Eskil shared a post on Instagram: "Flashback to a smoky music video shoot with @maliceinwonderlandofficial a few years ago. #maliceinwonderland #livefortoday #musicvideo #smokemachine #drumcam #bts #mapex #mapexsaturn #rockdrummer #sticktricks #drum #drummers #trommis #drums #drumsofinstagram...
www.instagram.com
You can also kind of see it in this video, but the light show makes it hard to make out what's going on. It's a nice display of my rock moves in general though: Stick twirls, big arm movements, alternating hands on crash grooves, crossing my arms to hit two crashes and just generally pointing at the audience to get them engaged. We're on stage to entertain, after all, so it's important to never look boring or bored. Stick tricks can be a great tool to achieve that; it's no different than any other "rock moves" that other band members do. The difference is that they're standing up and can strut around, while the drummer needs to do other stuff to look cool.
Edit: I actually do a long fake twirl before I start to play too, I just noticed, at around the 14 second mark. The gospel twirling is probably most visible after 3:50
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SomeBadDrummer
Platinum Member
I agree, the only time I ever really did any 'fancy stick twirling' was in the marching corps but it was limited to cross sticking and not much tossing or spinning, we left that mostly to the majorettes.
Truth
Alex Sanguinetti
Silver Member
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