Spin a Drumstick in a Circle on Your Palm

Do you take a percussion class or play the drums in a band? Do you usually see other drummers spinning their drumsticks in various crazy ways? Are you an individual, but still want a way to spin your drumsticks so that your friends might think you're cool? Well, if you follow these easy steps, your cool factor might just go up.

Steps

  1. Start with your hand out and open, with your thumb pointing away from you, and your other fingers perpendicular to your shoulders. Lay your drumstick flat on your palm with the butt of the drumstick pointing towards you and the tip of your drumstick pointing away from you, perpendicular to your thumb. Make sure the stick is relatively straight, i.e. 'not' tilted at an angle. Also, try to center the weight of the stick as best as you can.
  2. Grasp the stick with your thumb on top. The finger closest to you should be your pinky, then your ring finger, then your middle finger, then your index finger, then your thumb on top, farthest away from you, pointing the opposite way that your other fingers are pointing. Your fingers should be moderately tight together, not insanely tight as if you're squeezing your stick, and you shouldn't be able to see any of the stick between your fingers.
  3. Thrust your stick to the right with a little force, but not too much. Release your thumb from your grasp and inch your other fingers out so that the stick, as it's still turning, rests under your finger tips. This should only take about 1/5 of a second. The whole rotation should only take you about 1 - 1 1/5 seconds.
  4. Release the stick quickly from under your fingertips. The first finger to release should be your pinky, then your ring finger, and then your middle finger, etc., until your hand looks like it did before you grasped your stick. Only now, it should be either perpendicular to the position it had been in before you grasped your stick, or about 100 - 150 degrees to the right of its original position. The stick should still be moving while you're doing these steps.
  5. Catch the stick in the same finger position as you started with, once the desired rotation has been met (180º, 360º, 540º, 720º, ...). The pinky and thumb should be the first fingers to touch your stick, with your ring finger, your middle finger, and your index finger following close behind. Catch it firmly, or else your stick might slip from between your fingers.

Tips

  • Remember that your stick must constantly be moving from the time you thrust your stick to the right to the time you catch your stick firmly.
  • The drumstick should roll around the raised circumference of your palm, not the palm itself. Or, once you get really good, you can try rolling it around the raised joint between your third digit on your index finger (the third part of your index finger that is closest to your palm), and the place where your thumb meets the fleshy part of your hand near the thumb.
  • The whole rotation should be about 1 - 1 1/2 seconds long. If you try to do it in a 1/2 second, you are likely not to catch it, and have your stick fall from your hands, or maybe put an eye out. Your cool factor would surely plummet, so keep it slow. Like Aesop said, "Slow but steady wins the race."

Warnings

  • Do not perform at a concert that is paying you until you're good.
  • If you have a pair of sticks that are worth $100 because your favorite drummer signed it, make sure you practice this move with other less highly valued sticks first.
  • Make sure no one that could potentially get hurt or potentially sue you is close to you. You should be about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} from anything live or breakable or dangerous.
  • Move slowly at the beginning of practice. You'll catch speed on your own.

Things You'll Need

  • A drumstick

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