Controlling the drum sticks: the right grip

Drum sticks control - This drum lesson, dedicated to drum rudiments, contains a series of introductory exercises for drum sticks control, to get aquainted with drum sticks grip and fingers movement. Drum sheet

Video drum lesson preview   Drum sticks control

Introduction to the drum lesson: Drum sticks control

Just as in a lever, the grip of the drum sticks is the fulcrum, the main point of contact with your fingers, and it stays at about one third of the stick's lenght.
There are two kinds of grip: Traditional or Matched.
Matched: both hands control the drum sticks in the same way; the fulcrum is at forefinger first joint with underside of thumb on top of stick; the other fingers are around the sticks, butt toward center of palm, and they open and close as in a pincer.

Traditional: it differs from the Matched grip only for the left hand: the fulcrum is in the area between the base of thumb and the base of forefinger, and the drum stick slides between the middle finger and the ring finger. The thumb is straight, the fore and middle fingers fingertips push the upper part of the drum stick, ring and pinky finger, slightly arched, both support the stick butt. This grip is often preferred by jazz drummers, but the choice to adopt one grip or the other, or both, is strictly personal.

About VirtualDrumming

Virtual Drumming is an interactive drums method, with free online drum lessons, drum sheet music in pdf format, and virtual drums that you can play in real time.
All the drum lessons are played in real time by the virtual drummer. Just like a music teacher the virtual drummer plays at the desired speed the lesson on the score, making drum sheet music understable even to beginners. The drums method will be periodically updated with new drum lessons and drum sheet music.

This drum lesson dedicated to Drum sticks control is a part of the published basic drum lessons.
The basic drum lessons, the first part of this method for drums, deal with the right posture, which is the basic condition to develop speed, endurance and precision with your playing. The style and the role of drumming have evolved with time, but the basic drums technique hasn't changed much, and all the great drummers still build their own style from the same basis of musical theory.

Topics in the basic drum lessons and in the online drum lessons published drum sheet music are: Rudiments & Fundamentals, Coordinated independence, Basic drum beats, Snare drum studies, Drums grooves, and Songs drum parts, with transcriptions of songs and grooves by John Bonham, Phil Collins, Stewart Copeland, Steve Gadd, Ian Paice, Jeff Porcaro.