How to drum Snare
DPM - 1 - Beginning Snare Drum: Lessons (Grip and Basic Strokes)
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how to hold a snare drum stick the best
way to teach students how to hold a
stick one stick at a time take the stick
divide it into three equal parts grip
the stick between the thumb and index
finger on the bottom third of the stick
this is called the fulcrum use the
teeter-totter analogy that this is where
the stick will pivot in the hand it is
very very important that the student
places their thumb print on the stick
bad habits include putting their thumb
nail on the stick and letting this thumb
slide off the stick
the angle of the stick should not be too
far in the fingers creating a right
angle or straight up and down in this
situation the back fingers are not
participating in the act of drumming the
proper playing position for the stick is
for it to be at a slight angle across
the hand
if you've grabbed the fulcrum or even
balanced the stick on the fulcrum the
stick should bounce repeatedly and then
come to rest you get quite a few bounces
before the stick finally comes to rest
on the drumhead
if you have a very steep angle holding
the fulcrum and drop the stick the stick
well bounce perhaps once or twice and
then come to rest you're not going to
get as much rebound out of the stick if
you play too flat you run the risk of
hitting a rim shot and the stick will
die or you'll miss the head entirely hit
the rim plane area on a snare drum
center of the drum Center plane area is
going to have the thumpy er sound more
fundamental less overtone
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slightly off-center it's going to have a
little less fundamental and slightly
more overtones on the very edge you're
going to have very little fundamental at
all and lots of overtones now for
general playing I like students to play
in the center of the drum head for
dynamic reasons
if a student is playing a pianissimo
passage I have them play on the edge of
the snare drum
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now we're going to talk about stroke
types now stroke types are the
equivalents of tone production in wind
players the sound that we achieve out of
different instruments is created by the
way that we strike the instrument we're
going to talk about four different types
of strokes specifically full strokes
down strokes up strokes and dead strokes
the first stroke that we're going to
discuss is a full stroke make sure that
the student divides the stick into three
equal parts thumb is on the stick and
has an appropriate fulcrum back fingers
are around the stick now the full stroke
is created starting with the bead of the
stick up in the air wrist is low to the
drum bead is pointing up in the air the
stick will travel down strike the drum
and then return immediately to where it
started a full stroke when performing a
full stroke the back fingers are still
around the stick but there is space
between the palm the stick and the
fingers it allows the stick to breathe
when it's forced down to the head so
there should be some wiggle motion
available to the stick
the stick is pivoting on the fulcrum
created by the thumb and index finger a
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downstroke quite simply the stick
travels from its up position wrist down
tip up strikes the drum after striking
the drum the stick is stopped by the
student between one and two inches away
from the drum head now going back to the
reasons why we hold the stick like we do
dividing the stick into thirds is
important because it creates rebound if
we hold the stick too far back the stick
will not rebound as many times now on a
Down stroke the object is to keep the
stick from rebounding so by applying
slightly more pressure than closing the
back of the fingers it's going to keep
the stick from bouncing unlike the full
stroke where the back of the hand is
open the down stroke the back finger
should be slightly closed with the ring
finger gently brushing against the palm
the upstroke usually used in tandem with
downstrokes the stick begins two inches
from the head strikes the drum and then
the tip ascends to an up position
normally downstrokes and upstrokes are
practiced together here's an example of
down followed by up strokes the last
stroke type that we'll be discussing is
a dead stroke the stick begins up
position ends up forced into the head
dying away on the drum you'll notice
during a dead stroke the looseness of
the grip in order to let the stick
rebound as much as possible
you
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