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Adrum stick (ordrumstick) is a type ofpercussion mallet used particularly for playingsnare drum,drum kit, and some otherpercussion instruments, and particularly for playingunpitched percussion.
Specialized beaters used on some other percussion instruments, such as the metal beater used with atriangle or themallets used withtuned percussion (such asxylophone andtimpani), are not normally referred to as drumsticks. Drumsticks generally have all of the following characteristics:
Thearchetypical drumstick isturned from a single piece of wood, most commonly ofhickory, less commonly ofmaple, and least commonly but still in significant numbers, ofoak.[1] Drumsticks of the traditional form are also made from metal,carbon fibre, and other modern materials.
Thetip orbead 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 withnylon tips have also been available since 1958. In the 1970s, anacetal tip was introduced.
Tips of whatever material are of various shapes, including acorn, barrel, oval, teardrop, pointed and round.
Theshoulder of the stick is the part that tapers towards the tip, and is normally slightly convex. It is often used for playing thebell of acymbal. 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.
Theshaft is the body of the stick, and is cylindrical for most applications including drum kit and orchestral work. It is used for playingcross stick and applied in a glancing motion to the rim of a cymbal for the loudest cymbal crashes.
Thebutt is the opposite end of the stick to the tip. Some rock and metal musicians use it rather than the tip.
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 asjazz (typically a 7A, 8A or 8D) orheavy 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.
There are two main ways of holding drumsticks:
Traditional grip was developed to conveniently play asnare drum while riding a horse, and was documented bySanford A. Moeller inThe Art of Snare Drumming (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.