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"/> Factors, affecting the volume of the stick hitting the drum. – Paratriplet Studio

Factors, affecting the volume of the stick hitting the drum.

There are many suggestions for this issue., like famous musicians, and teachers. Some tips are really helpful. But there are also many misconceptions about this., embedded in an elementary misunderstanding of the physics of impact. Such advice becomes problematic not only for the learning process., but also subsequently undermine our budget, since heads and plates quickly wear out and become nothing more than consumables

Let's consider what is happening from the point of view of physics.

A blow - this is a dynamic hand throw of a stick onto a drum, as a result of which the interaction of bodies occurs, their mutual reflection and redistribution kinetic energy.

As a result of the redistribution of kinetic energy, drum plastic, vibrating, produces sound vibrations (that's why the drums are called “membranophones”). In this moment impact volume on the drum directly depends on kinetic energy of the stick.

Kinetic energy depends on mass of the stick and its speed at the moment of impact.

For example, when the mass of the stick doubles, its kinetic energy will also double. A with growth stick speed at two times, her energy upon impact will increase already in 4 times!

Conclusion - if your goal is to increase the volume of the impact, then you can:

  • increase mass sticks;
  • increase it length;
  • increase it speed at the moment of contact with the surface of the drum.

Let's start with masses.

Some drummers come to this on their own, other, on the advice of the teacher, take heavier sticks. Basically, it works, given that, that your equipment has been brought to a professional level.

But each of us knows, How inert are objects with greater mass?. They are more difficult to move or stop (for comparison, try to move a car and a truck weighing several tons).

The same thing happens with the drumstick. – with more weight in hand; your movements will become more difficult. The increased length of the stick also adds inertia when accelerating it to strike., which also leads to a slowdown.

The situation can be made even worse, increasing the mass due to the so-called “investment” of the mass of the hand into the blow. With this approach, inertia will increase in direct proportion. Mass of the hand (and this is several kg) very difficult to learn to control. If your drum heads have dents, if the sticks serve less than the prescribed period, so this is the first sign, that you put a lot more effort into your punches, what is needed for good sound production. You can say, that only a small part of the energy is used to create the sound of the drums, the rest goes to their destruction. This is an obvious flaw in the drummer's picking technique..

Speed sticks, like linear, so and angular, depend on the magnitude of the acceleration, which we communicate to her with the muscular energy of the hand. The final velocity upon impact is also affected by time impact of this acceleration (for example - the longer we accelerate our car with constant acceleration, the higher its final speed, and the longer the distance he will go). In the case of a stick, it will increase amplitude strikes, in this case the determining factor is time for its implementation. Obviously, that at a slow speed we will always “have time” to play a blow with a larger amplitude, than at a fast pace...

With a constructive approach to learning, increase in amplitude stick movements occurs automatically, as a result of a subtle approach to the development and improvement of synchronization of the work of hand segments (legs) and natural growth of mobility of the entire gaming device.

Most effective, from a physics point of view, way to increase speed sticks at the moment of impact - this is to determine the desired acceleration forward movement of the stick and its angular acceleration, what's called control (wand control).

This approach involves the systematic development of special types of muscle groups in our hands., their reactions to the development of speed and the formation of synchronization skills.

Drum kit, like other musical instruments, has its intellectual side, therefore the conceptual approach to drummer's hand placement based precisely on the principles of sound production listed above.

Play the Drums Smartly:)