How To Avoid Breaking Drum Sticks

Here are some of the reasons that drum sticks break while you are playing:

Inaccurate Cymbal Technique.

Remember shoulder of the stick to the shoulder of the cymbal. Be mindful of the angle of your cymbals, not too flat or too steep. If your cymbals are mounted flat – parallel to the floor - you end up cutting the sticks in half on the edge of the cymbal. If your cymbals are angled too steeply you end up using too much of the tip of the drum stick and not enough of the shoulder. The tip is the thinnest, weakest point of the stick, for heavy hitting you should be hitting with the shoulder.

Inaccurate Drum Technique.

Like with cymbals be mindful of the angle of your drums, a gentle slope up and away from you - not flat to the floor and not too steep. If your drums are mounted flat – parallel to the floor - you end up cutting the sticks in half on the rims. If your drums are angled too steeply – with the drum heads standing like a wall in front of you - you end up using too much of the tip of the drum stick and not enough of the shoulder. The tip is the thinnest, weakest point of the stick, for heavy hitting you should be hitting with the shoulder.

Thin Sticks.

I use Vic Firth SD2 Bolero sticks which are a little over half inch in diameter. Great sticks with a nice balance. I do break sticks once in a while when playing hard, but breaking sticks is not something that happens a lot and it shouldn't be. Mostly I wear them out with rim-shots.

After a while my sticks look like somebody has been chewing through the shaft right about where the shaft hits the rim of the snare on a nice solid backbeat. If your breaking sticks this thick on a regular basis you probably need to think about playing lighter and getting mics on your drums. The drums are an acoustic instrument – if you are hitting hard enough to keep up the volume with loud electric instruments you really need mics so that your running the drums through a PA/Monitor system. The only proper way to keep up with the high volumes of electronic instruments is with electronics.

Cheap Sticks.

There is a reason some sticks are in the bargain bin for $1 a pair. Remember the old saying - "you get what you pay for" – the fact is cheap stick are just cheap.