[drum_ritual]

When I first started playing drums, I would shred sticks like it was going out of style. In fact, I thought that it was normal to do so. Now, many years later, I hardly ever break sticks thanks to improved technique. I think we all know that rimshots do cause increased wear on sticks. As was mentioned in another post, playing the edge of the hihat can slowly shred sticks over time. I've also found that the stress of pinging on the ride cymbal can cause slowly-growing fractures in sticks. I think that most of us have learned by now that a drummer needn't pound the hell out of the drums/cymbals in order to get the right sound. Then again, some accents should be played with a fierceness and that's when stick failures occur.

One other thing that should be mentioned is choosing quality drumsticks. It's important to look the sticks over before buying them. Even well-known and trusted brands (Vic Firth comes to mind) sell sticks that are just waiting to break. Look at the wood grain and make sure that it runs the length of the stick. Wood grain that runs diagonal to the stick is a sign that the stick will never last. I've seen plenty of packages of sticks where one stick is perfect but the other has inappropriate wood grain characteristics. Personally, I think that quality control should have caught them before leaving the factory but I digress. Sometimes (almost always), you have to mix and match sticks. If a music store has a problem with you doing this then I would go somewhere else or at least talk to the manager. I've never been to a store where this was a problem, though.

Stick failures happen. Usually at the worst possible time. Sometimes it's the stick. Sometimes it's your technique. Sometimes it's just time that the stick finally breaks. Even great sticks have to die at some point. Brings a tear to my eye.