How to Play a Rim Shot on a Drum Set

Video Transcript

"Okay, so we've gone over how to roll on the snare, different beats, fills. And now what we're going to do is talk about the rim shot. The rim, as I explained earlier, is the metal circle that goes around the top of the snare, and there's one on the bottom. And basically what the rim shot is, is hitting the rim with the butt end of your stick. You can do it with either end, but you have a lot more mass and more dense on the butt end of the stick so it makes a better sound. So to do a rim shot, hold the stick like this. Place the head of the stick onto the, just right onto the snare. And what you're going to do is you're going to clack it right down on to the rim. So it's going to make a sound like this. Now the stick placement is really important when you're doing a rim shot because as you can see, I'll demonstrate, it makes different noises the further up you go on the rim, and the further down you come. So let's start with what I just did. Now move it up. So as you can see it's a lot different. So I mean, not that either one is good or bad, but just know exactly what you're doing. Because if you start a song, you know, that kind of rim shot and then all of a sudden on the next verse you're down here it's going to sound a lot different. So be aware of where you hit it. So now I'll just do a regular beat with the rim shot."