Drumstick Tips

Mike Michalkow: Okay, so lots of my students are asking me, “I walked into a music store and I see 5,000 different drumsticks,” as I see here. Where do you lead the absolute beyond that’s never had a drum lesson, doesn’t even know how to spell drum? Where do we start? Dean Reimer: Typically, I’ve asked whoever is asking for drumsticks, so just mention well, “Are they for you? How long have you been playing?” Typically, if they’re saying, “Well, I started yesterday, I really have no idea.” Well, the first thing I’ll explain is that drumsticks are complete thing of preference. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: Everything about drumsticks is just for how long you’ve been playing drums, what kind of style you play or just what feels comfortable in your hands really is the biggest thing. So the biggest thing to understand for drumsticks is that it’s really up to you what kind of drumsticks you want to use. There’s no particular rule—a particular stick for a particular type of music or sound. Mike Michalkow: Okay. If I walk in here and said, “Okay, I’ve never played before whether I’m on this age, whether I'm eight years old,” where would you direct them first because they may not know what feels good in their hands. Dean Reimer: Well, typically, I’ll start them in the middle. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: That’s usually a good place to start because it will be an average style for a stick as far as its diameter, its weight. So usually, a 5A is a category of the stick that is probably the most average. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: It’s a pretty averaged size stick. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: Now, pretty much, every drumstick company is going to make a 5A. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: So, right there is almost the dilemma. It’s like, “Oh, which brand do I use?” Well, if I hold up a few different 5As. Mike Michalkow: It looks similar. Dean Reimer: They are very similar. The only thing I can really say that’s different about them is going to be the shape of their tip. As an example, Vic Firth is typically a very popular to have sort of the teardrop shape with the A corn type tip. Victor and Pro-Marc have a more of an oval shaped tip. Pro-Marc a little bit more of a point on the end of it, but the different shapes of tips can bring different types of sounds to the drums. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: Typically and the cymbals. Mike Michalkow: So it’s not the one is better? Dean Reimer: So, it’s not the one is better. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: But there will be slight differences between each other. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: However, if you’re beginning, you can have any one of these and they will serve you absolutely fine. Mike Michalkow: The number and the letter. Dean Reimer: The number and the letter. Mike Michalkow: 5B, 5A, 7A, 8D, help me out. Dean Reimer: Well, there’s a few hum that are fairly standard for the most part. Between any of the companies, they’ll all have the standards. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: 5A is going to be your averaged type stick. Mike Michalkow: Okay, the middleweight and length. Dean Reimer: The middleweight, 7A is going to be a slightly smaller stick. A lot of jazz players and guys were going to be playing lighter and they serve Latin type of music as well. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: Typically, well like either 7A. Mike Michalkow: Okay. Dean Reimer: Or something like that— Mike Michalkow: You have a 7A here? Dean Reimer: I do. So a 7A compared to a 5A may not look like too much of the difference. Mike Michalkow: Sure. Dean Reimer: But it will be a touch shorter and it will actually be a bit of a smaller diameter. Mike Michalkow: Okay, and for the heavy rock players, so there’s a kid who had been playing for a couple of years, and he is doing like a death metal band or something, 7A would not be the drumstick for him? Dean Reimer: No, 7A would not. The next step up from that would begin to a 5B. Mike Michalkow: B, for baseball bat? Is that what you mean? Dean Reimer: Well, it’s getting there. There are some that are bigger. It’s going to be a touch longer just a touch. Mike Michalkow: That’s longer—the bigger tip to— Dean Reimer: A bigger tip, a bigger shaft and just generally a little bit bigger. Mike Michalkow: Okay, so you might start here with the—for the rock guys? Dean Reimer: Yeah, for the rock guys, the 5B or you can even get into what’s called an extreme 5B which will actually give you a slightly extended length from the sticks, so you’ll get a bit more of a reach for the regular 5B and the extreme 5B. Not every company will do that but a lot of companies will have their variations of it. Mike Michalkow: Okay. So we’ve got the 7A which seems to be the smaller are the ones, then we’ve got the 5A which is bigger than the 7A, 5B which is bigger than the 5A and the 2B which appears to be quite a bit bigger than the 7A. So we have a category, now what I'm seeing is simply like the higher the number, the smaller the stick. Dean Reimer: Yup. Mike Michalkow: The lower the number, the bigger the stick. Interesting, okay very cool. Now, is there anything bigger than a 2B? Dean Reimer: I'm glad you asked. Mike Michalkow: I dare asked. Dean Reimer: There are. They’re probably going to be a little harder to find because a lot of stores will find that they have a bit of harder time selling them, but a lot of drum core type groups or for the guys that really like hurting their drums can even move into some of the core master sticks. And if I can actually compare this to go back to a 5A, the difference in stick is quite astounding. Mike Michalkow: I wouldn’t suggest this on the snare drum or on the drum set although, some people I'm sure do use it in the drum set? Dean Reimer: As long as you have warranty on your cymbals. Mike Michalkow: And a drum endorsement? Dean Reimer: Yes. Mike Michalkow: Because I don’t think you’re going to break this anytime soon right. Dean Reimer: Probably not, the only thing that’s going to be breaking is what you’re hitting them with. Mike Michalkow: All right, so eventually, what I have noticed, I mean, over my, it’s actually going to be 20 years of playing drums next year, and I was always playing what my drum teachers play or my favorite drummers. And I finally know, I wrote it down, I mean, the drumstick that I use to this day and I’ve been using the last three years is the extreme 5A wood tip that Dean is talking about here. And I was surely by going through all of these sticks and using them and playing them, I’ve tried so hard to use my favorite drummers’ drumsticks. My favorite drummers Neil Peart, Steve Gadd Dave Weckl, Thomas Lang, Akira Jimbo, all these great players and I personally can’t use their drumstick. The reason being is I find that these sticks were designed for those guys and for myself I'm very picky with what I use. I ended up going back for the first stick that you recommended which is the 5A, which is probably what I should start with. And I found it a little bit more length with the drumstick that I used. But it’s a personal, it’s a very personal thing. For example, if we look out the Steve Gadd drumstick, I mean, for those who know who Steve Gadd is, he’s one of the most incredible drummers in the world, and this work amazing for him, but I find this extremely light for me. It doesn’t matter if I'm playing jazz or funk or rock, I have a hard time playing this. I have been a Neil Peart fan since day one like most drummers. I have no idea how Neil uses those drumsticks, but when he plays them, it’s incredible.