Don't laugh.

Hey anybody out there tell me how you pick drum sticks? whether you want a nylon tip or wood and why? What does the 5A or 7A on a stick mean?

I've searched all over the internet but can't seem to find the above info and I am trying to teach myself to play on a set that was given me but don't know what type of stick I should choose as a beginner.

Any help appreciated. Thanks

Choosing the size of your sticks is pretty muchup to what you feel comfortable with. For begginers it's recommended to start with heavier sticks, when I started playing my drum teacher recommended that I practiced with marching band sticks (very heavy), then whe I made the move to 7A (the size I use now) I could play many times faster because they felt a lot lighter.

Nylon or wood tip depends on the sound you want, a nylon tip will give you a bright sound on your cymbals (specialy Hi-Hats and Ride) and will also las longer, wood tips give you a warmer tone and they dont last as long.

7A and 5A are different stick sizes, 5A is thicker and heavier than a 7A, 7A is pretty much the thinest standard size (there might be thinest ones out there but I have not seen any, the only ones Ihave seen are timbale sticks). I would recommend to go with 7A Nylon tips, but like in all of drumming the final choice is yours, depending on your preference.

Jorge

7A is too thin and light to begin with, I would recommend to start with the regular 5A wood tip and practise with these....

5A is your general average stick. By and large, the numbers don't really mean anything.....don't try and work out what the 5, the 7, or the A/B have anything to do with the size. Basically, it's like this:

5A - average (14mm) 7A - shorter (dunno length) and thinner (13mm) than a 5A 5B - thicker than a 5A, possibly a bit longer 2B - thicker and longer than 5B Marching sticks - BIG.

Those are the standards....most companies produce those sticks in identical configurations. I'm not sure about Pro-Mark, I think they just use their proprietary 707 / 717 / 747 etc stick names. I prefer nylon tips because they never chip, although some have come off the end of the stick (rarely though). Personally, I use Vic Firth 8D Jazz nylons: the length of a 5A and diameter of about 13.5mm.

Hope this helps,

well, what you need to do is this:

go to your local music store and find the drumstick section. try out as many sizes as you can (usually they will have a practice pad laying around) and find the weight that you like best. for tips, i use nylon because they have a brighter sound on the cymbals and wood tips destroy the heads (if you play rock). now go to the drum teacher at this store and get yourself signed up for some lessons. you won't regret it.

as stick size goes, there are patterns that you see in musical genres commonly. if you're going to play in a quiet jazz band, you'll probably want a smaller light wieght stick like a 7a, since a lot of people can get more dynamics out of the small light sticks. if you're going to play punk death metal, you'll probably want a huge 2b or 'rock' size stick, since you need a lot of volume. i'm in the middle, my favourite stick is a 5b. my teacher is working with me to develop my hand technique, which involves letting the weight of the stick do most of the work. for this reason i like the slightly longer sticks.

but yeah, ask the people at the counter what the most popular sizes are for the style of music you want to play, and try those sizes out if you can.

good luck and have fun!

Thank You all for your input. I was looking at sticks at the store but I'm kind of shy around people and I didn't want to look stupid to some guy at a counter asking what drum stick I should buy. Especially when the guy at the counter is like 20 and you are 40 and you have to tell him that you are just now wanting to learn how to play drums.

all of your help greatly appreciated.

Especially when the guy at the

Hey, I teach drums and keyboard here in England, and please don't worry about being 40 I teach a few 'mature' pupils, and they respond much better than 10-year olds. You have the drive to have got this far, so go ahead and enjoy making music!!

Best of luck

Andy B

Sticks work like this: The smaller the number the fatter the stick. 2's are fat, 5's are average, 7's are close to the smallest.

The letter is an old system having to do with the use of the stick 'A' means orchestrA and these are smaller lighter sticks 'B' means Band and these are similar to A sticks only larger diameter. 'S' means Street and these are huge fat loud sticks for marching or other street playing.

But outside the old naming system are other names. Usually these are full words or number like 'Jazz' (which are thinner and ligher than 7A sticks) or 'rock' (heavy) or '747' (Not a bad big stick) Also there are sticks with more or less odd shapes named for certain artists who endorse them.

As a beginner, my advice is to forget about finding 'THE' size stick you should use and get them ALL!

Hey, you are a newbie. You don't have a clue what size stick is 'best' for you. There's only one way to find out. Try 'em!

Don't spend a fortune just to try sticks. Go to the bargain bin as Sam Ash or G C and pick out some different sizes to try. Pick out some with wood and some with nylon tips to see the difference. And lastly, after having done that, spend some cash and give the Mainline synthetic sticks a try in the size (actually one size smaller since they are heavier than wood) you found nicest for what you are doing. I love them.

Try Jazz, 7A, 5A, 5B, 2B and anything else that takes your fancy you can afford. get a cheap stick bag and keep them all in there!

Good luck!

Benj

PS when buying cheapo sticks be sure to roll them on a flat surface to check that they are not warped.

i find that a mainline 5b is equivalent in size to a vater 5a, with a slight weight difference. definately not as heavy as the vater 5b. then again, the vater 5b is heavier than the vic firth and pro mark 5bs that i've tried, so perhaps the vaters are heavier than average. either way, the mainlines are quite nice. i have a friend who goes through a pair of mainlines in a couple of weeks, but i can't seem to break them from rim shots ... ever. i did have a couple of sticks which lost a segment from about mid shoulder up, this seems to be a weakness in the mainline sticks, the guy at the store said that most people were having that problem. but yeah, they're pretty good if you can get past the fiberglass shreds all over the place.

28 and started last month! Taking lessons too

I don't know abour 'problem'. Mainline sticks don't last forever (no matter what the ads say!) But they do last MUCH longer than wood. When they fail it's usually the tips that break off. I've never seen anybody split one from a rimshot! OF course they tend to get all fuzzy from rimshots and chewing on cymbal edges (I've got a china NOT turned over).

But lifetime is NOT the reason to get Mainline IMHO though it ain't bad. The real reason is the super rimshot and rimclick sounds these sticks give...just too cool!