Getting a variety of sounds from a drum — and controlling them well

There is an enormous variety of sounds that you can get from a single drum, so let’s go through a few, and also discuss some of the ins and outs of using these sounds. We will focus on the snare drum as it is the most common to all types of drumming.

Well first of all there is the fundamental sound change on a snare drum between snares on and snares off. All the other sounds discussed here can have a snares on version and a snares off version.

There are two really easy and obvious ways to change the sound we get from a drum.

One: change what we hit it with. There are a whole variety of things produced these days to hit a drum with. Apart from a whole range of sticks and brushes, there are various mallets, “hot rods”, plastic flaps, nylon brushes, “flix” — the list goes on and on — then of course there’s always your bare hands.

Two: change where you hit the drum. Let’s go through some specifics.

Oftentimes a composer will ask for us to play the drum “near the edge” or “in the centre”. This certainly does achieve a significant sound difference. It also tends to produce a softer sound near the edge — or at least make it easier to play softer — so some drummers tend to play near the edge as a little “cheat” when they need to play softly.

This can be quite ok — there is nothing wrong with this cheat really, but you do need to be aware that it will also affect the type of sound produced. In particular, playing near the edge of the drum means your sound will not be as crisp and articulate. Notes played near the edge will have more high harmonics and will ring a little longer, with less snare “snap” and longer snare ring.

If you really want to get clearly articulated rhythms on the snare at faster tempos then you need to play in the drum centre — and if the dynamic is very soft, then you just have to develop the hand control to make the strokes small enough. Where playing near the edge can be ok — in fact actually better for getting really soft sounds — is with unmeasured rolls. In this case the lack of definition actually works to our advantage.

When you play “near the edge” of the drum, it is easiest to use the edge furthest away from you. Using the near edge creates a bad hand position and requires a difficult stick angle to avoid clicking the rim. I’ve often seen drummers have their sticks out to the side — also not good! If both sticks are out to one side there will be an uneven sound as one stick will be closer to the edge than the other. If the hands are out to either side there is still a high likelihood of unevenness, as the tension is often not quite the same on either side.

Go for the far edge, and aim to position the tips of the sticks directly between two adjacent lugs. If you have the stick on either side of a lug, then once again there can be a difference in tension producing an uneven sound.

Ok — what about some other places to hit the drum…

Some other commonly used sounds would be playing on the side or shell of the drum, or playing on the rims. In particular it’s quite common for snare drum solos to include sections where one hand plays on the rim whilst the other plays on the drum.

Whilst there is no special technique for playing on the rim — you just hit it — it is always worth being extra careful with balancing the volume in these sections. The rim sound is inherently softer than the loud drum, so these sections work better if the rim notes are played out a little more strongly whilst the drum notes are taken a little more easy. Really listen carefully for the correct balance.

Drummers from all types of backgrounds will be familiar with the term “rimshot”, but it seems there are some differing ideas about what a rimshot actually is, and there are a few similar yet different sounds which often get their labels mixed up.

The “correct” rimshot is simply a stroke played in the normal fashion but with the stick held at an angle such that the tip hits the head at the exact same point that the shaft of the stick contacts the rim.

The sound of the rimshot is always loud and aggressive, but it can vary quite a bit depending on how far from the rim contact point the stick tip strikes the head. Using a flatter stick angle and big gap between shaft and tip contact points tends to result in a fat and chunky sound with more bass. Using a sharper stick angle and a small gap results in a thinner and higher pitched sound with more upper harmonics and more ring.

Another common sound which is often mixed up with the rimshot is more properly called a “rimclick” or “cross-stick”. This sound is achieved by holding one end of the stick firmly on the head of the drum whilst the other end extends over the rim. The shaft of the stick is then pushed downward into the rim in a stroke action.

Most drummers prefer to reverse the stick for this sound and hold the tip down on the head with the palm, whilst the fingers grip on the shaft and the butt end extends over the rim. It doesn’t usually make a whole lot of difference in sound however. Well — it does make a difference in sound, but a bigger variation in sound is achieved in the same way as with the rimshot: by altering the distance between the rim and contact point on the head.

I usually prefer to NOT reverse the stick, as it makes switching into and out of the cross-stick technique faster and easier whilst playing.

A very similar type of sound to the cross-stick is called “stick-on-stick”, and although its sound is actually a little different, it is often used as a kind of quick cheat method of playing a cross-stick because it is easy to do one quickly when you are holding the stick in the normal fashion.

Rather than changing the grip on the stick, we use the normal grip but hold the tip down on the head. The sound is achieved not by pushing the shaft of the stick into the rim, but by striking the shaft of the stick with the other stick.

Once again there is an enormous variation possible in this sound. Variable factors include the position of the stick tip on the head, and the striking point on the stick. Also this sound can be played with the tip of the stick touching the head only, OR with the shaft of the stick ALSO held on the rim in the cross-stick position. In this case the sound can be varied as before by changing the gap between the rim and the tip of the stick.

Some cool effects can also be achieved with the stick-on-stick sound by using some special techniques. If we hold the stick which is struck with the fulcrum of the grip only, and control the butt end with the fingers in the normal “finger control” way, we can achieve an intermediate drum-only note between each stick click. In fact you can even achieve a buzz sound with the fingers as one would do with the “multiple bounce” or “buzz” roll, and simply keep the stick energized with a fast series of clicks from the other stick. This is best understood by looking at the video above, which I recommend you do.

These are some of the more common sounds available from a snare drum, but the limit is only in the imagination — I’m sure new ideas are being invented as I write.