How to Do a French Downstroke on Snare Drum

The French may be known as smooth talkers, but they are also smooth percussionists. The French designed the French style of holding a drumstick to create a fluid drum roll for their orchestral tympanis. The style translated over to snare drums where it is widely used today for the same reasons. In just a few short steps, you can use it too.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Snare drum
• Drum sticks

1. Handle the stick about ¼ of the way from the bottom. Not only will this maximize your hitting power, it should also be very comfortable to you. Handling it too far back will fatigue your forearms and too far forward will suck the power out of your strike.

2. Grab your drumstick with your thumb flat on the backside of the stick and your fingers supporting it underneath. Keep a very loose grip but not so loose that the stick will fly out of your hand. Your thumb should be supplying most of the pressure.

3. Keep your hands level with where your elbow naturally hangs from your shoulder. While you should keep a good posture while drumming, you should also be very comfortable so you can fall into natural grooves easily.

4. Lift the drumstick and your fingers backward until they are in a vertical position. Your thumb and forearm should basically be in the same place. The power is all in the fingers with the French style.

5. Squeeze your fingers into the horizontal position again. This will cause the stick to come in contact with the snare. Since this is a downstroke, you must keep the stick down very close to the snare.

Resources

• You Tube