A rimshot is a

percussion 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. Exc ...

technique used to produce an

accented A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...

backbeat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a p ...

. The sound is produced by simultaneously hitting the rim and

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals ...

of a

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

with a

drum stick A drum stick (or drumstick) is a type of percussion mallet used particularly for playing snare drum, drum kit, and some other percussion instruments, and particularly for playing unpitched percussion. Specialized beaters used on some other p ...

The sound and various techniques

The sound of rimshots can be described as "part normal snare and part loud, woody accent", or "generally sharper, brighter and more cutting han a standard accent,Shepherd, John (ed.) (2003). ''Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: VolumeII: Performance and Production, Volume 11'', p.158. . since the technique produces large amounts of overtones. The

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

is used on the snare in rock,

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ( ...

, and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

and on the

tom-toms A tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snares, named from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala language. It was added to the drum kit in the early part of the 20th century. Most toms range in size between in diameter, though floor toms can go as la ...

in Afro-Cuban music. The technique is very common in ska,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

and

rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

. In marching percussion there are three types of rimshots. The most common is the "normal" rimshot, which is played with the tip (bead) of the stick held about three inches from the rim. This produces a prominent, accented tone. The second is the "ping shot", where the bead is struck about one inch from the rim. This produces a high pitched sound. The third is a "gock" (also spelled gawk), which is produced by hitting the bead of the drum stick at the center of the drum while the rim is percussed with the distal shaft of the stick (near the hand). This makes a lower sound. In

Latin percussion {{for, the company, Latin Percussion Latin percussion is a family of percussion, membranophone, lamellophone and idiophone instruments used in Latin music. Instruments Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican styles Folkloric and Santeria * Trap drums * Abakua ...

, timbale players use rimshots near the edge of the head, but these sound very different from in marching percussion. In

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, a rimshot is performed by placing one drum stick with the stick head near the middle of the drumhead, and the shaft pressed against the rim, and striking with the other stick. This produces a less powerful sound, and is easier to execute than a typical rimshot. This variation is also known as a "stick shot". The rimshot is often confused with the cross stick technique, in which the tip of a drumstick is placed on the head near one of the bearing edges and the shaft of the stick is struck against the rim opposite the tip, thus creating a dry, high pitched "click" similar to a set of

claves Claves (; ) are a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short, wooden sticks about 20–25 centimeters (8–10 inches) long and about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in diameter. Although traditionally made of wood (typically rosewood, ebony o ...

. The stroke is used to simulate claves in Brazilian bossa nova and also used for

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s in rock, pop, and

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whi ...

More general use of the term

The musical phrase played on percussion instruments used to punctuate jokes is known in percussion jargon as a

sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-earth ...

. This is often called a ''rimshot'' although some versions of it do not include a rimshot in the technical sense. A rimshot when used to accent the punchline of a joke being told by a live comedian may or may not simultaneously be played with a small cymbal crash. This was popularized in standup comedy by comedians performing at the resorts in the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...

region. Many of these comics were of Jewish heritage and were known as " Borscht Belt comics", after a vacation spot in the Catskills. The best illustration of how a rimshot might be applied to a comedy routine is to look at the classic style of Henny Youngman who in addition to playing a violin would tell fast-paced, one-liner type of jokes. His most famous line was "Take my wife… please!"; after he said "please", it was the drummer's duty to play a rimshot to punctuate the humor and generate laughter from the audience. Sometimes, the comedian would react to the rimshot as if he did not expect it and in doing so, pass the reaction and responsibility for the rimshot on to the drummer. When in fact, the comedian had previously instructed the drummer when to use and when not to use the rimshot. There was really nothing surprising about the use of the rimshot because they were scripted into the routine by the comedian, but were designed to appear to be improvised by the drummer. And when the comedian jumped, or blinked or otherwise physically acted as if he was hit with a "slap" it would generally heighten the audience's response. The cymbal and rimshot together, or the rimshot followed immediately by the cymbal crash all worked together to maximize the reaction to the joke.Of Stings and Rimshots
, ''SoundandtheFoley.com''. Retrieved 17 July 2012

References

{{Drum beats Drum strokes Percussion performance techniques