JonFosterDrummer

Junior Member
Hey Everyone!

Not sure why, but I never fully got into the drumstick trick world, even when I was starting out as a kid. Now I want to see what's good with them and find out all your recommendations. Types, applications, video tutorials, etc.

I filmed myself doing the classic twirl in slow-motion and it kind of made me realize how useful it was to break down exactly what my fingers were doing and where I could improve. Totally open to suggestions if you want to check it out HERE


Also, it would be great to discuss when and how people are incorporating them in their performances in a tasteful way.
 
The only stick trick I have is not dropping them. I still drop one on occasion, but I'm much better than before.
 
The modern snare drummers do stick tricks nicely.
Harvey Thompson comes to mind as one who promotes this well.

My personal feeling is stick tricks on a drumset are clownshoes.
 
I have a few tricks, but really only two that I use live.

One is the classic 80s fake twirl (just twirling between the first and second finger). I'm not fast enough to pull this one in between backbeats though, so I generally only do it if my hand has some "free time" (like when only the left hand is playing for a few beats).

The other is twirling the stick backwards, never leaving the grip between thumb and index finger. I think it's sometimes called the gospel twirl.
It's hard to explain, but you basically twirl the stick backwards towards you, and twist your hand out of the way to allow it to complete the circle.
You can sort of see me do it at around 2:20 into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntv1qR3FtGU
I actually do it all through the song in the choruses, but it's hard to catch because of the strobes.
This trick is very quick, so it's easy to do in between backbeats. Raise your hand high and twirl the stick on its way up, and you've got instant rock moves.
 
The stick throw ala Neal Peart is my favourite if I have the ceiling space to do it.

I'm lucky my left hand is my throwing hand so there's more space on that side, takes a bit of practice to get right, more revolutions the better and if it comes down at your head you'll learn to get ninja reflexes.

Other than that there's the fake spin that everyone does.

There's also the stick snatch which I nicked off Lionel Hampton where you kind of float the stick up in the air and swipe it back into your hand side on.

Speaking of Lionel Hampton, watch some of his solos and then realise stick tricks aren't for you :)
 
Not a stick trick fan, but I do like the one where you slam your stick into the snare and let go. The stick goes twirling straight up, comes down and is caught. Playing continues. I like that one. Tried it for about a minute. Got tired of retrieving my sticks.
 
The Buddy Rich "rolling" of the sticks against each other is the coolest one in my opinion... it looks AND sounds impressive!
 
Hey there OP, for me stick tricks are cool on a marching field ALA DCI. Check out some of the BYOS guys or modern snare guys.

on drumset, I feel that sometimes it's too much if its not natural. The earlier post of Chip is cool, but I think some of those tricks aren't very practical in a live music setting. When i say practiacl in a live setting i'm not talking about the guy from the video called "drummer at wrong gig" that's also cool and fun.
What i mean is check Morgan Rose of Seven Dust, Ray Luzier of Korn, Chad Smith of RHCP has a couple fun ones, and Mike Portnoy as well.

Just my 0.02!! Fun Thread though.

J
 
I suggest considering twirls as stick facility practice....using it live is a bit...cheesy...in my opinion...but we all know what we say about opinions! : )

I also use things like double and triple back sticking which helps my facility with moving the stick in my hand...Throwing both sticks into the air while they rotate and contact each other giving an odd 'stick mixing' flight path...cascade style twirling where the stick rolls between fingers...and a few more... but things I would never use live.
 
It is not good enough to maintain the status quo for stick twirling. We must innovate.

I suggest:

Stick Swallowing

Using slight of hand to make them disappear

Toss them into the audience like throwing as axe
 
I'm not into them, but a couple of years ago I got Chip Ritter's DVD. Still not into it, but it's a good DVD if you are.

You definetly want to look at the "wrong gig drummer" Steve Moore.

The was an insane youtube video with Jojo Mayer I saw once, but was never able to find it again.
 
It is not good enough to maintain the status quo for stick twirling. We must innovate.

I suggest:

Stick Swallowing

Using slight of hand to make them disappear

Toss them into the audience like throwing as axe

I like this idea. Okay I got:

Drumming while juggling like 4 pairs of sticks.

Balancing a third stick on your nose.

Learn to spin the stick the same way a majorette twirls a baton. In talking the under leg stuff and all. Splits are optional.
 
I hardly use them anymore, except at some gigs for the visual side, but it also helps keeping the muscles warm. I only use the 'fake' twirl (keep the stick between the index and middle finger and rotating). Can get some good speed with my right hand, but still struggle with my left hand.

What i do a lot (when i think of it now) is hitting the snare or floor toms and making the stick bounce up so i can catch it. A lot fun as well, as long you don't hit yourself in the eye ;)
When the stick hits the head and wants to move up again, i give it a small momentum with my hand and with the added force it flies upwards.
 
It is not good enough to maintain the status quo for stick twirling. We must innovate.

I suggest:

Stick Swallowing

Using slight of hand to make them disappear

Toss them into the audience like throwing as axe

I'm going to try holding my stick steady and twirling a stand with a 20" china on it against the stick for some obligatory visual aspects.

Or mounting a kit upside down and with the 4 sticks twirling upwards play the kit and maintaining the beat.
 
I had a friend from drum corps years (decades) ago who had a neat trick with the fake twirl.
Doing triplets for example, snare bass bass, floor tom bass bass (repeat repeat repeat...). Fake twirl forward into the strokes on snare and FT, reverse twirl as they bounced off. It was really a neat trick to see.
 
I used to be into stick tricks in high school. That’s all we ever saw with hair bands. Never really got the hang of it well enough. A few years later I just focused on getting the song right and playing to the music.

I see a bunch of this stuff on YouTube, but seems more of a look at how cool I am statements than entertainment. I’m sure everyone here has seen this: https://youtu.be/yC-Rt0TXnOYShe does really well and in context of a drum exhibition, it fits well and great entertainment value.

I’d much rather watch a band kill it musically than show off and be all over the place.
 
This is really simple, but I never could get the hang of twirling my stick with my left hand, so I quit trying until I ran across Rikki Rockett's old website on a fluke. On the opening page there was a slow-mo video of him doing a couple of stick tricks. What the video showed was he almost always did tricks with his right hand, so with his left, he kept the back-beat going and did whatever with is right hand. Within the hour, I had it down.

Like I said, I don't do this a lot, but time to time I'll pull it out. Life is too short to not have fun every once in a while! (Clown shoes and all!) :)
 
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