How to Play a Snare Drum with Rods

Series Summary

The drum is the oldest known musical instrument in the history of man and its basic design has not changed in thousands of years. Far from today’s uses as a percussive foundation for pop music or for fueling marching band excitement, drumming has a more profound history as a method of communication, and the drum as an implement of religious symbolism. The drum was perhaps first created from the primal idea of mimicking the human heartbeat, yet today its music has developed into a technical, complex arrangement of beats and grooves.

The modern approach to drumming is to try and master the fundamentals of beat and time signature, and then to create fresh, innovative patterns and fills for each song. In this free instructional video series you will learn how to play drums with rods using several different styles of grips including American, German and French. It's a completely different sound and style for each grip but our expert Joel Siegel will share techniques for creating the best rod sounds as you add fills. He offers tips and advice and walks you through some great informational steps to becoming a more advanced and original drummer.

Video Transcript

"JOEL SEIGEL: I'm excited to welcome a new member into our family. I've put down the sticks for a moment and picked up a pair of hot rods. Hot rods are the Pro-Mark version of this type of stick. They were the first to come out with it so you'll often just--hear this type of stick called hot rods most like a Xerox machine for copy machine or Kleenex for tissues. The hot rod concept is based on a group of dowels being put together and what ends up happening with the sound is there's more than one sound as far as--instead of just hearing the sound of the wood on the drum, you'll also hear the sound of the slap of the dowels hitting each other and the sound of actual multiple pieces of wood hitting--striking the drum. The first thing that you'll notice when you start playing with hot rods is the drop in volume for when you're playing with sticks. You'll also notice that--different texture and sound. These are good for playing kind of mellower gigs, mellower music; sometimes, jazz and bossa nova just kind of mellow or rock stuff. Use them as how you see fit."