I needed a word for an epiphane about drum sticks...
Last weekend my teacher was listening to me do doubles on some snare drills and said they were weak, that the doubles sounded weaker than my other strokes (think the Haskell W Harr Drum Method books for those of you who went through those).
I spent all week trying to correct it and concluded that the 7A's were the primary problem, they are so light they are hard to control for doubles. Not impossible, but holding back the playing just a wee bit.
I watched a lot of videos on holding sticks and finding the fulcrum, and noticed most drummers play less choked up on the sticks than I do. I adopted this position to take strain off the wrists, and it works well for that, but coupled with 7A's make doubles really hard to control. I tried less choked up (meaning more stick between me and the drums and less behind my hands) and things got better on the doubles, more control, more dynamic range, but I could feel the wrist impact coming back too. I noticed the sticks felt heavier held like that and I got to thinking that a heavier stick might be easier to control without me having to choke out, meaning best of both worlds, so a quick trip to GC and I bought a couple pairs of 5A's.
Bottom line is I was right, playing with the 5A's everything works better, more control, more dynamic range with less effort, especially the doubles. I don't have to choke way out with them either, my preferred playing position (designed to take strain off the wrists) works great with the 5A's and gave me even more control over doubles than choked out 7A's did. My "choke position" is now in the range of what I see other drummers doing.
Saw my teacher again and he agreed, said 5A's are easier to control than 7A's. The funny part was I remember he had tried to disuade me several times from using 7A's. Starting way back at the beginning, he said it would be harder to play well with them, funny how he knew that. :-) But at the time my technique was bad and I was having wrist problems (from the bad technique). So the 7A's were a nice crutch to avoid wrist injuries while developing my technique. I actually played 7A maples (the lightest stick I could find) for the first several months of playing, then went to the heavier 7A hickories after I learned the choke-up thing greatly helped the wrists, and now I find 5A hickories are a nice sweet spot for me, and my stick position is approaching normal, if there is such a thing.
I suspect this is old stuff for many veterans out there. :-)
Last weekend my teacher was listening to me do doubles on some snare drills and said they were weak, that the doubles sounded weaker than my other strokes (think the Haskell W Harr Drum Method books for those of you who went through those).
I spent all week trying to correct it and concluded that the 7A's were the primary problem, they are so light they are hard to control for doubles. Not impossible, but holding back the playing just a wee bit.
I watched a lot of videos on holding sticks and finding the fulcrum, and noticed most drummers play less choked up on the sticks than I do. I adopted this position to take strain off the wrists, and it works well for that, but coupled with 7A's make doubles really hard to control. I tried less choked up (meaning more stick between me and the drums and less behind my hands) and things got better on the doubles, more control, more dynamic range, but I could feel the wrist impact coming back too. I noticed the sticks felt heavier held like that and I got to thinking that a heavier stick might be easier to control without me having to choke out, meaning best of both worlds, so a quick trip to GC and I bought a couple pairs of 5A's.
Bottom line is I was right, playing with the 5A's everything works better, more control, more dynamic range with less effort, especially the doubles. I don't have to choke way out with them either, my preferred playing position (designed to take strain off the wrists) works great with the 5A's and gave me even more control over doubles than choked out 7A's did. My "choke position" is now in the range of what I see other drummers doing.
Saw my teacher again and he agreed, said 5A's are easier to control than 7A's. The funny part was I remember he had tried to disuade me several times from using 7A's. Starting way back at the beginning, he said it would be harder to play well with them, funny how he knew that. :-) But at the time my technique was bad and I was having wrist problems (from the bad technique). So the 7A's were a nice crutch to avoid wrist injuries while developing my technique. I actually played 7A maples (the lightest stick I could find) for the first several months of playing, then went to the heavier 7A hickories after I learned the choke-up thing greatly helped the wrists, and now I find 5A hickories are a nice sweet spot for me, and my stick position is approaching normal, if there is such a thing.
I suspect this is old stuff for many veterans out there. :-)
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