Warm Up

Ever tried running a long distance without warming up? Lifting weights without stretching? It's a fast way to hurt yourself and perform far below what you're actually capable of. The same rule applies to drumming.

Drumming relies on your tendons, muscles and joints to provide the movement of a drumstick. I, for one, get scared when I hear about nerve damage and the like. I don't want to end up like Phil Collins, who can't even hold a stick any more. There's two really simple ways to avoid long term damage: correct technique, and warming up.

Because there are many theories about the correct technique to do pretty much anything in drumming (for example, the way to hold you sticks), I'm going to focus on warming up. It's easy to do, it'll save you a ton of hassle in the future, and it's a good way of getting prepared for a gig.

1. This one is simple: stretch. Do some light stretches of your entire body. You don't just use your arms and legs to play drums - you use every finger, your wrist, your elbow, your shoulder, your back and so on. Everything should be warmed up before you play.

2. Do some light practice. Something like rudiments, just to get your fingers working properly. I've lost track of the number of times I've heard someone play and thought they were being clumsy, only to hear them tighten up after playing for a while. If you can't warm up on your drum or drum kit (for example, if it's waiting for you on stage) then you can use a practice pad or something with a similar rebound. If it comes down to it, play on your knees.

3. I once heard Terry Bozzio advocate soaking your arms in warm water before you play. This will loosen up your muscles, and generally have the same long-term effects as stretching. You could even combine the two.

4. Don't sit down and instantly try to play at 280 beats per minute. Even after you've stretched, played a few rudiments etc, just sit down and play a simple groove. Not only will this help you get into the swing of things, it'll also help you notice if anything on your kit needs moved, adjusted or tuned.

5. Enjoy it. Warming up shouldn't be a chore or a challenge. It's an essential part of playing, and playing the drums is meant to be fun.

This video is a simple example. Don't try to get too fancy when you warm up - remember, you're exercising your body, not showing off your new fills.



Update: I should add that Matty G. on the Drummerworld forum put me on to this Youtube channel, which is definitely worth a look.

Sticking Technique

So you've picked your sticks, set up and tuned your drums and now you're ready to play. The thing is though, there's a lot more to holding drum sticks than just grabbing one.

There are two primary ways to hold a stick - traditional and matched grip.

Matched grip

Most contemporary rock and pop drummers use matched grip, and it's the one most people are familiar with. Chances are, if you give anyone a drum stick they'll hold it matched.

Matched grip basically means that both hands hold the sticks in the same way:

Lay a drum stick in the palm of your hand, with the tip pointing out between your thumb and index finger.

Now close your fingers around the stick. Your index finger and thumb should be where the grip is, with your other fingers closing more gently around the stick.

View from underneath.

This is where things get a little more complex. There are three main types of matching grip:

German, French and American.

The German grip

Your palm should be parallel with the floor.

To strike the drum, use the natural up and down motion of your wrist.

This grip gives you a lot of power whilst using minimal energy.

The French grip

Your palms should face each other, so your thumbs are directly on top of the drum stick.

To strike the drum, you still use the motion of your wrist, but with much more emphasis on your fingers to control the stick.

This grip gives you more control and typically faster strokes.

The American grip

This is basically a mix of the French and German styles, with your palms at a 45 degree angle to the floor.

To strike the drum, you should evenly use your wrist and fingers to control the stick.

This grip gives you an even mix of power and control.

Because of the way the human body is built, I think the German grip is the best matched grip type - it uses the strengths of your wrist joint and is less likely to cause any ligament damage further on down the line. To gain better control of the stick, you'll just need to practice endlessly, until your fingers (specifically your third and fourth) are playing more of a role in the movement.

Incidentally, a good exercise for this is to hold the stick vertically between your thumb and index finger, and try to move the stick back and forth with only your little finger. Then, try with only your ring finger. Repeat this often and you'll soon see the benefit.

Traditional grip

The traditional grip is commonly associated with jazz drummers (although rock drummers like Cozy Powell have also used it to great effect). It comes from military snare drummers who had to play their snare at an angle, and so couldn't use the matched grip comfortably.

The traditional grip means that your dominant hand holds the stick in the matched position, but your other hand is different:

Lay a drum stick in the palm of your hand, with the butt pointing out between your thumb and index finger.

Now move the stick at a slight angle so that it rests in-between your second and third fingers. Close your fingers around the stick so it moves in a sharp but fluid motion when you flick your wrist.

View from the side.

Although I've heard people say that the traditional grip means you lose a lot of power in your non-dominant hand, just looking at the Cozy Powell (a drummer famous for his hard hitting) video above, and the likes of Jojo Mayer and the drumming God that is Buddy Rich, I can't really see their proof. Like everything, you just need to practice.

Project 2

This morning I received a parcel in the post - inside was a new drum head for the project snare/tom. Because I'm turning a tom into a snare I needed to change the bottom head from a regular resonant head (clear) to a snare hazy head. This means the snare wires will resonate properly on the new, thin head and create that loud 'crack' sound. I ordered a Remo Ambassador hazy and here it is.

 Now I'm just waiting on a new bottom hoop and snare wires. The hoop is a 12" 5 lug snare hoop, which means it will have two slits in the metal to allow the snares to pass through. (You can see an example of what I mean here.) As for the snares, they're 12" 16 strand wires. Basically, the more wires you have the more 'snarey' your drum sounds. Bigger drums, like a standard 14" snare, tend to have either 20, 24, or even 42 wires, but because this is a 12" I went for something smaller to fit the drum. Hopefully everything should arrive in the next few days and I can really start making some progress.

Project

A little aside from tips and guides here, but I thought I would share my new project.
I figured it'd be interesting to try and convert an old tom into a snare drum. Not only does this give me a shiny new snare, but it also means I get to learn (and, therefore, you also do) more about how wooden snare drums work.

Snare drums are more commonly made of metal. This tends to give them more of a steel-y crack. However, wooden snare drums are just as good, and offer a slightly warmer tone. I own two metal snares (a cheap budget one and a vintage Premier) and one wooden snare (an old Remo - they don't just do drum heads). I love how the Remo sounds, and wanted a bit more of this sort of thing.

So, with the help of the internet, I tracked down an old Gretsch tom and decided this would be my project.
It arrived today, so here are the 'before' photos.

 Gretsch Catalina Club Tom, 12 x 7 inches, in Silver Sparkle with Black Stripe.

 The tom features the Gretsch Mini GTS suspension system, which suspends the drum by the rims, not by the shell or in a snare stand.

Close up of the badge and sparkly finish.

It came fitted with a well used Evans EC2 SST head.

The tom has a bit of damage - the usual scratches and bumps you'd expect with a drum that's been used for a while - but I aim to replace some of the hardware (the lugs are my main target, and the hoops will have to be changed to allow for snares). I'll also be drilling in holes to mount the snare strainer and butt plate and, if needs be, filing in snare beds. Right now I'm waiting on a Remo Ambassador hazy head, and looking for suitable snare wires and hardware. In between the other posts here about drum kits in general, I'll be updating on the progress of this tom/snare. I hope you enjoy it.

Tuning

Once you have your new heads, you're going to want to tune them properly to bring out the best sound in your kit. If you don't know what you're doing, tuning drums can be an absolute nightmare.

Drum heads work by being stretched across the drum at a certain tension. This tension is what creates the pitch of the sound when the drum is struck. Snare heads are tuned a lot tighter than toms, and bass heads are tuned a lot looser.

To tune a drum, you need a drum key. You can pick these up at most music shops and they are often pretty cheap. The key is what tightens the tension rods into the drum lugs, thus tuning the drum.
Note; drum lugs are the pink things seen here:

To tune a drum, you should fit the head and tighten the rods finger-tight. Then, pick a rod and tighten it slightly. Instead of choosing the next rod clockwise or anti-clockwise, the next rod you tighten should be the one opposite to the one just done. Keep going around the drum in this fashion until you've found a pitch you think sounds good.
Then you need to check the pitch of each lug. To do this, you should gently hold the drum head in the middle with a finger (to kill the overall sound of the skin) and tap roughly an inch or two away from each lug with a drumstick. When each lug is at the same pitch you'll find your drum sounds a lot nicer. Do the same with the underside (for toms you should tune it to the same pitch, snares can differ) and you're all done.

When you tune your bass drum you should look for the lowest pitch you can get from the head. To do this, press down on the head quite hard, and tighten the rods until any wrinkles on the head disappear. Once you've done this you can release the head and go round tightening the rods again until you get an even sound.

To be honest, it's often difficult to understand how to tune properly from any written guide. I was totally lost until I found the following videos. If you follow them you can't go wrong.









I should add that with the bass drum, I tend to keep my resonant head tuned up pretty high in comparison to the batter. Mainly because John Bonham did this, and his drums sounded amazing.

Heads/Skins

One of the easiest ways to improve the sound of your kit is with new drum heads. Most beginner kits come with no-name budget heads that sound fairly plain. However, once you've been playing for a while and are looking to improve your sound, those old heads should be the first things to go.

For those who don't know, drum heads (or skins, whichever) are the part of a drum you hit with the stick. Most modern drums have a head on the top and bottom of the drum (See Phil Collins' kit for an example of drums with just one on the top). The top head, the one you strike, is called the batter head. The one underneath is called the resonant head.

Head types can vary greatly. Generally, there are two finishes - coated and clear. Clear heads tend to have more sustain and a brighter sound. Coated heads give more impact and less ring. Some companies, like Remo, offer things like suede finish, fiberskyn and skyntone. These are really just a variation on coated heads, and offer slightly different sound qualities depending on what you're looking for.
Snare heads are slightly different, in that the batter can be the same as any on your toms (if that's the sound you're after) but the resonant head has to be completely different. A snare bottom head is called a hazy drum head. It's micro-thin (3-mil, usually) and this is what the snare wires resonate against to give you that 'crack' sound when you hit your drum. You don't use regular resonant heads on your snare, and neither do you use a hazy on your toms.
Bass drum heads are also slightly different to other heads. The batter head (where the pedal beater hits the drum) is often heavily muffled. This reduces ring and gives a nice thud sound. You can do this by either putting a small pillow inside your drum, or by using specially muffled heads (or both, as I do). The resonant head will sometimes have a small hole (a port) cut in the front. This makes it easier for a microphone to capture the sound because it can be placed almost inside the drum, and also helps with air flow.

As a general rule, I like to use coated batter heads and clear resonant heads. I like to think this gives me a nice balance of attack and sustain. I tend to favour Remo heads (although Evans and Aquarian are the other big names and I have nothing bad to say about either), and currently use a coated Ambassador batter head on my snare with a Hazy Ambassador underneath. I also have clear Ambassador resonant heads on my toms, with Ebony Pinstripe batters. Aside from the fact that I think black heads look nice on my kit, Pinstripe heads (drum heads made with two layers and a ring reducing agent) give much less sustain and I like the punchy sound they give. The Ebony finish makes this even more pronounced. For my bass drum I use an Aquarian Super-Kick II on the batter side and a ported coated white head on the front.

Each of the aforementioned companies have really useful websites with comparison charts and sometimes sound files to help you pick your drum heads.
http://www.remo.com/
http://www.aquariandrumheads.com/
http://www.evansdrumheads.com/