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A drum stick (or drumstick) is a type of
percussion mallet A percussion mallet or beater is an object used to strike or beat a percussion instrument in order to produce its sound. The term beater is slightly more general. A mallet is normally held in the hand while a beater may be foot or mechanically ...
used particularly for playing snare drum,
drum kit A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
, and some other
percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
s, and particularly for playing
unpitched percussion An unpitched percussion instrument is a percussion instrument played in such a way as to produce sounds of indeterminate pitch, or an instrument normally played in this fashion. Unpitched percussion is typically used to maintain a rhythm or to ...
. Specialized beaters used on some other percussion instruments, such as the metal beater used with a
triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...
or the
mallets A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. The term is descriptive of the overall size and propor ...
used with
tuned percussion A pitched percussion instrument (also known as a melodic or tuned percussion instrument) is a percussion instrument used to produce musical notes of one or more pitches, as opposed to an unpitched percussion instrument which is used to produce ...
(such as
xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...
and
timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...
), are not normally referred to as drumsticks. Drumsticks generally have all of the following characteristics: * They are normally supplied and used in pairs. * They may be used to play at least some sort of drum (as well as other instruments). * They are normally used only for unpitched percussion.


Construction

The
archetypical The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ot ...
drumstick is turned from a single piece of wood, most commonly of hickory, less commonly of
maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
, and least commonly but still in significant numbers, of
oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
. Drumsticks of the traditional form are also made from metal,
carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...
, and other modern materials. The ''tip'' or ''bead'' is the part most often used to strike the instrument. Originally and still commonly of the same piece of wood as the rest of the stick, sticks with
nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pe ...
tips have also been available since 1958. In the 1970s, an
acetal In organic chemistry, an acetal is a functional group with the connectivity . Here, the R groups can be organic fragments (a carbon atom, with arbitrary other atoms attached to that) or hydrogen, while the R' groups must be organic fragments n ...
tip was introduced. Tips of whatever material are of various shapes, including acorn, barrel, oval, teardrop, pointed and round. The ''shoulder'' of the stick is the part that tapers towards the tip, and is normally slightly convex. It is often used for playing the
bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...
of a cymbal. It can also be used to produce a cymbal crash when applied with a glancing motion to the bow or edge of a cymbal, and for playing ride patterns on china, swish, and pang cymbals. The ''shaft'' is the body of the stick, and is cylindrical for most applications including drum kit and orchestral work. It is used for playing
cross stick A rimshot is a percussion technique used to produce an accented snare drum backbeat. The sound is produced by simultaneously hitting the rim and head of a drum with a drum stick. The sound and various techniques The sound of rimshots can ...
and applied in a glancing motion to the rim of a cymbal for the loudest cymbal crashes. The ''butt'' is the opposite end of the stick to the tip. Some rock and metal musicians use it rather than the tip.


Conventional numbering

Plain wooden drumsticks are most commonly described using a number to describe the weight and diameter of the stick followed by one or more letters to describe the tip. For example, a 7A is a common jazz stick with a wooden tip, while a 7AN is the same weight of stick with a nylon tip, and a 7B is a wooden tip but with a different tip profile, shorter and rounder than a 7A. A 5A is a common wood tipped rock stick, heavier than a 7A but with a similar profile. The numbers are most commonly odd but even numbers are used occasionally, in the range 2 (heaviest) to 9 (lightest). The exact meanings of both numbers and letters differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, and some sticks are not described using this system at all, just being known as ''jazz'' (typically a 7A, 8A or 8D) or ''heavy rock'' (typically a 5B) for example. The most general purpose stick is a 5A. However, there is no one stick for any particular style of music.


Grip

There are two main ways of holding drumsticks: *
Traditional grip In percussion, grip refers to the manner in which the player holds the percussion mallet or mallets, whether drum sticks or other mallets. For some instruments, such as triangles and large gongs, only one mallet or beater is normally used, held ...
, in which right and left hands use different grips. *
Matched grip In percussion, grip refers to the manner in which the player holds the percussion mallet or mallets, whether drum sticks or other mallets. For some instruments, such as triangles and large gongs, only one mallet or beater is normally used, held ...
, in which the two hand grips are mirror-image. Traditional grip was developed to conveniently play a snare drum while riding a horse, and was documented by
Sanford A. Moeller Sanford Augustus Moeller (1878–1960) was an American rudimental drummer, national champion, educator, and author. He was born in Albany, New York on February 16, 1878, and he began his music education by studying the piano. While still a ...
in ''
The Art of Snare Drumming The Moeller method, Moeller technique or whipping technique is a percussive stroke method that combines a variety of techniques with the goal of improving hand speed, power, and control while offering the flexibility to add accented notes at will. ...
'' (1925). It was the standard grip for kit drummers in the first half of the twentieth century and remains popular. Matched grips became popular towards the middle of the twentieth century, threatening to displace the traditional grip for kit drumming. However the traditional grip has since made a comeback, and both types of grip are still used and promoted by leading drummers and teachers.


Popular brands

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Pro-Mark Promark is a Houston, Texas-based American drum stick company. Since 2011, it is part of strings company D'Addario. Promark is a widely known stick company generally played in drum set, drum and bugle corps and concert bands. History Promark w ...
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Vic Firth Everett Joseph "Vic" Firth (June 2, 1930 – July 26, 2015) was an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a company that makes percussion sticks and mallets. Biography Vic Firth was born June 2, ...
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Vater Percussion Vater Percussion is an American manufacturing company based in Holbrook, Massachusetts. The company has always focused on percussion instruments, producing drum sticks, brushes and mallets. It was founded by Jack Adams, and is now run by his ...
* Collision Drumsticks *
Regal Tip Regal Tip is one of the world's largest manufacturers of drum sticks and other percussion mallets. They produce a range of beaters, but are particularly noted as a manufacturer of premium steel brush (music), brushes and nylon tipped drumsticks. ...
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Tama Drums Tama Drums, (from Japanese: (Kanji), (Kana), read as ) is a brand of drum kits and hardware manufactured and marketed by the Japanese musical instrument company, Hoshino Gakki. Tama's research and development of products, along with produc ...
* Stagg


See also

*
Percussion mallet A percussion mallet or beater is an object used to strike or beat a percussion instrument in order to produce its sound. The term beater is slightly more general. A mallet is normally held in the hand while a beater may be foot or mechanically ...


References

{{Percussion Human–machine interaction Stick Drumming Musical instrument parts and accessories Percussion instrument beaters