1.Ways of holding sticks according to naming

I am a follower of symmetrical holding of sticks (right and left hand holds in the same way). This is called match grip. So I will briefly describe to you the possibility of holding sticks in a symmetrical way with respect to both hands.

1. The most popular and universal way - the so-called American grip.

The hands are arranged in such a position that the space between the thumb and forefinger is at the top (both fingers lie on the sides of the stick).

2.When you turn your hands face up, you get the so-called German grip. This method of holding ensures high impact strength and the active use of large muscle groups, such as the wrist, forearm and shoulder.

3.Turning the hands to the other side - the thumb is at the top, above the stick - we get the so-called French Grip. By holding the sticks in this way, you activate your fingers more, so you can play faster and better control the impact with your fingers.

2.How to eliminate basic hand technical mistakes?

- Elbows excessively protruding outside - to avoid this bad habit when playing a snare drum, put an extra stick or other flat object between your shoulder and torso. Thanks to this, you will learn to hold your elbows close so that the stick does not fall out when playing.

- Excessive elbow retraction - sit close to the wall so that your hands do not have the opportunity to move beyond the back line of the body. This simple way will allow you to eliminate the habit of reversing elbows after hitting the snare.

- Wrist muscle stretching - we need time to teach our hands to work freely, without straining our muscles. Lifting the snare drum higher may be helpful, because as I mentioned earlier, a snare drum placed too low often causes the wrists to be shortened.

3.Drum pad or snare drum - what is better to practice?

It depends...

I prefer to play the snare drum because it is a more musical instrument, so as soon as I can practice it on the snare drum, I recommend it to you (you feel more sound, dynamic and articulation details from the snare drum), but we can't always make noise, so we often have to practice the drum pad.

The drum pad has also its advantages - as a rule, it is more elastic than a snare drum, thanks to which you can improve the techniques of sticks rebound, resilience, recovery of strength after impact, etc.

It is perfect to start training with a drum pad (e.g. 15 min) and then proceed to playing the snare drum.

4.Rebound Stroke and Tap Stroke techniques.

Rebound Stroke consists in a strong rebound of the stick after hitting (to vertical or almost vertical position), while Tap Stroke is - simply put - a lower version of the Rebound Stroke technique.

In the Tap Stroke Technique the stick rebounds to a small height, several centimeters above, but we also use the snare surface elasticity and weight of sticks so that the sticks rebound after hitting (you can't tie your wrists).

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