HOw to do tricks whit your sticks?

[Steven]

Does anyone know how to turn your drumsticks in your hand.
Is there some technique you need to do whit your fingers?
If yes tell me what technique.....

[dogdrink]

i dont think ANYONE should get involved with this pointless crap.
go practice your drumming instead of stick twirling.
spence

[Steven]

hehe.....

It's cool to know you know....
Maybe if you're in bed you can practice this stick twirling...

[newbeat]

Lighten up, it's not pointless crap...after all, mike portnoy twirls his sticks!;) jk, but still, what's the problem with it? Marching lines actually spend time working on visual stick effects, some pros can do all sorts of throw-the-stick-around-behind-your-back stuff. Bad stick twirling isn't cool and looks really dumb and pathetic, but watching someone really good at it can be really entertaining. Let people practice what they want...

And for tricks...start out with just twirling it in a circle between your first and middle finger until you can comfortably make it blur. And also work on passing it from finger to finger...start slow, and work at it if you want to do some of that cool stuff.

[Fran]

dsoen't hurt to know it. dont' spend your time practising it. is useless. no one cares if you can spin it. let say you are recording, your spinning stick thingy won't be recorded.

[Steven]

true.
But that's not the point.
I think on live performances you have to give a show.
Besides to drum good , you have to give entertainment.

[ClydeWJones]

Twirling's fun. I don't necessarily practice it, just every time I grab a pair of sticks I make like a ninja with stick twirls before I get down to drumming.

Most of my stick trick experience comes from marching in High School. The first thing we learned was the basic spin, which was explained earlier in this thread. Hold the stick at it's balance point between your first and middle fingers, rock it left to right, then give a little twist to your wrist and it'll start to spin. The tip will be drawing a circle in the air on the outside of your hand. Most people can do this with their right hand, so to be even remotely impressive I suggest practicing both hands.

The next thing to try is a "palm spin". You basically open your hand and let the stick spin in a circle on your open palm. Go find a baton twirler and have her show you.

Another easy one to do is to simply throw your stick into the air spinning end over end and catch it. Practice this one a lot before you try it in front of people (otherwise you'll look really silly). It helps to tape a bit of colored electric tape on the butt end of your sticks when doing this (grab for the colored end ;) !!)

The last one I'll mention was called a "gunslinger draw". If you've ever seen Detroit Rock City, remember the part where the kids beat up the disco guys for breaking their Love Gun eight track... the drummer kid does one of these. You somehow get the stick to spin around your first finger like a cowboy would spin a pistol. I sucked at this and would usually drop my sticks, so if we were supposed to do it, I'd cheat and do a basic spin really fast.

There's other things we did, using one stick to flip the other around, etc. Practice juggling a little and learn a little from baton twirlers. Make up other stuff.

And, keeping in the vein of this thread, don't practice stick twirling and showing off at the expense of your drumming. And also, don't go twirling your sticks as part of a show unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure you have it down cold. Nothing will make you look like a bigger goober than dropping a stick during a show off moment.

Clyde

[Steven]

you rule!

but what is the most easiest and good looking trick there is???
I'm now practicing to twirl my stick between my fingers.
SO i start whit my first finger and it goes to the right and i twirl it further whit my middelfinger .........

Isn't there a much easier trick to do??

[ClydeWJones]

Hmmm... the basic spin I mentioned is probably the easiest one to try.

In all honesty, you don't really spin the stick. Hold it between those two fingers at the balance point with your hand sideways. The stick should be horizontal and the tip should be pointing away from you.

Grab the tip of the stick and make it go in a circle (either back towards you or forwards, doesn't matter. I always go back towards me and I have trouble going the other way, but I know people who are exactly the opposite).

That's the motion you're looking for. It's easiest to be shown what to do than read it. Check out "That Thing You Do". The drummer usually did one of these spins just before starting out the drum beat. Be sure to mute the TV though, otherwise that song'll get stuck in your head again (I can't stand it, doing that thing you do... eeep).

That should help you out a little more. There's a book floating around to tell you how to do these things and a bunch of complicated stuff that I can't even begin to do. But I think that buying a book to learn to spin sticks is a bit much. Maybe find it at a store and skim through it and put it back :). Not that I'd ever condone such behaviour.

Clyde

[AL PERCIVAL]

Originally posted by Steven
true.
But that's not the point.
I think on live performances you have to give a show.
Besides to drum good , you have to give entertainment.

Hi Steven,

your comment isn't pointless and well taken. I understand where your coming from. Like practicing, stick twirling is an art (and not that hard BTW). With a little practice, you can do anything!

Here's a cool book for you to buy or order:

"DRUMSTICK SPINOLOGY" by Steve Stockmal
The complete method to spinning drumsticks!
Over 100 spin and twril tricks variations (of which I honestly only know three - the Tommy Lee method, fake spin and forward reverse spin through the fingers)

Pick it up, its a cool book! Not cheap, $29.95 I think you can
purchase it through www.drstix.com.

Best of luck to you!
Al

[PilgrimDrummer]

First of all, to all you "useless crap" advocates...
Go to www.drummerworld.com and check out a couple of John Blackwell's video clips. I don't see much "useless crap" there!

Second, I've got a couple of twirls that are VERY easy and VERY useable. I should be getting a hold of a digital camera this weekend, so as to save my breath in trying to explain them with words.

L8R

[revolution9]

theres a big artical in modern drummer about stick spinning. i think its the january issue.

[PilgrimDrummer]

I was sort of let down by the article in MD. In the December issue, they promoted an "in-depth look at stick twirling" but in fact, it seemed to me to be a little bit about stick twirling, and a lot of talking to artist's who happen to flip a stick once in a while, most of them explaining the same move. (the "soup bowl" spin)
Don't get me wrong, I think stick tricks add a ton to a live performance, but I like the one's that have a function. i.e. a trick I'm currently trying to master which allows me to quickly (and stylishly) switch my left hand from traditional grip playing with the tip of the stick, to matched grip playing with the butt end, for rim clicks and such. It's basically a "down and out" spin over the back of my hand, resulting in tip end landing in my palm.

[Lil_drummer_girl]

go to drumbum.com they got lil vidios how to do it and a whole heap of other stuff too :)

[Stevie C]

spinning sticks is fun, looks cool and im ****ing good at it, so why the **** not.

[less_than_alive]

I'm going to start learning some of these spins something to do when its too late to actuhally drum but i want to drum i'll lay in bed and practice trwiling my sticks, i know a guy at every show he twirls his stick on like every snare hit its impresive but its too much like showing off doing it every time.

[Pivoman]

I remember seeing a couple Poison concerts in high school, and (oh boy, here come the flames!!) Rikky Rockett was a pretty good twirler/showman/hotdog with his sticks. Not the best drummer of course, but I only remember him dropping a stick once in the 2 concerts I saw him play.

He did the basic twirl, between the fore and middle finger. I learned this by accident while in high school by talking on the phone and screwing around with a drumstick in my other hand between my fore and middle finger, and I was twirling it!!....albeit in slow motion. I picked up speed from there, and practiced with the left hand as well.

My drumming needs more work than my stick twirling, however!

[RedLightDrummer]

I'm not the biggest fan of stick twirling. I can do it. I can incorporate it into playing, but I'd rather do something esle with my hands like throw in an extra splash or something. The only use I've ever found for it, is when you want to change from traditional to match grip on your left hand.

start in traditional grip
spin wrist downwards
spin around and upwards
while up, spin from the ring and middle, to middle and index, to index to thumb.
its the finger to finger trick, but do it so you end back in match grip.

This becomes useful on marching snare more so than set, and its a nice little visual to go with it.

Derek