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After almost 30 years of drumming, I’ve collected several hacks that have made managing gear and playing drum set more enjoyable. From dealing with the positioning of drums and cymbals to making different and better sounds, it’s always helpful to have a few tricks in your toolbox. This list of 10 hacks was made after I thought about several of the useful ideas I've collected. If you use any of these or know of hacks not on this list, please share with us in the comments below. We'd all love to know what you're doing to level up your playing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PADJaFv1Nfg Related: 10 More Hacks for Drum Set 1. Use the butt of your stick. Vinnie Paul was the first drummer who I noticed playing with the butt of his sticks. I thought it was awesome because he was such a powerful drummer. It wasn’t until I started learning more styles, like jazz, that I realized that the butt of the stick was not subtle enough for cymbals. Drum sticks have to solve a tough problem. Round tips are better for drum heads, and the tips with more surface area are better for cymbals. This is likely why the acorn-shaped tips are so popular. The butt of your stick is great for strong snare drum sounds, but it is too much for ride patterns with a range of accented and unaccented notes. I can still see the country drummers at the county fair use the butt of their stick to get a stronger cross stick sound. If you experiment with this technique, you’ll find the sweet spot where it feels and sounds the best. 2. Duck tape works for dampening. Using tape to mute drums was standard practice in my high school years. But it wasn’t until I had a session in a Dallas recording studio that I learned how to use tape well. The engineer came into the drum room with duct tape and asked me if he could try a few things. I was just so happy to be on the session, so I agreed to whatever he wanted. I don’t condone putting your sound in someone else’s hands, but I was in learning mode. He ripped off a few two- to three-inch pieces of duct tape and begin rolling them with the sticky side out. The rolled tape was place on the tom batter heads about an inch away from the rim, and they sounded great. And you don't need to use duct tape. It could be gaff tape, which is something that's usually hanging around studios and stages. I now use Moongel because they are cheap enough and don’t leave adhesive on the drum heads. But I can’t say that they sound better than rolled tape. I used tape because it’s what I had and Moongels weren’t available, yet. Now I buy Moongels on Amazon and always have extra. 3. Drill a cymbal crack to slow it down. Cymbal cracks break my heart. I love cymbals and hate to see one stressed to point that it cracks. It happens from time to time, so it’s important to know what you can do to get more life out of the cymbal after a crack begins. If a cymbal cracks, you can drill a hole on the edge(s) to slow down the growth of the crack. This is also a good opportunity to place a rivet or a paperclip in the cymbal from some added sizzle. Usually, cymbals crack because they are misused or the wrong cymbal for the player. Sometimes it’s for other reasons. Before you throw it away, try slowing the progression of the crack or consider re-purposing the cymbal for an effect that could go on a snare drum or metal rack. 4. Play hi-hat accents with the shoulder of the stick. David Garibaldi is the drum set player I think of when this hi hat technique comes to mind. His definition of accented and unaccented strokes on the hi hat is exactly what drummers need to achieve clarity in their grooves. Related: 5 Free Drum Lessons (Hi-Hat Technique) The accents are played with the shoulder of the stick on the edge of the cymbals. And the unaccented notes are played with the tip of the stick on the top of the hi hats. This differentiation of playing surfaces helps tremendously when the patterns are highly syncopated with linear and layered voices like what you would hear from a drummer like Garibaldi. This technique allows hi hat cymbal work to breathe a little more through some dynamic and timbre contrast. It’s through the contrast that you can achieve definition, and the definition will provide clarity and sophistication. These simple things can turn you into a beast of a drummer. https://youtu.be/WjS4N4zp9UY 5. Keep time on the rim. Instead of playing every groove with your ride pattern on the cymbals, the rim of the drum is a great alternative. This especially works well if you want the kick and snare to stand out in the groove. The rim of the snare or toms are the easiest choices. I like using the rack toms because they are conveniently located and they have a knocking sound that blends well with the drums. Try mixing up the pattern by switching between two rack tom rims. You could almost play them like agogô bells. Experiment with the playing surface on the stick. If you play the rim with the part of the stick that’s closer to the tip, you will get a thinner quieter sound. This could be good if you don’t want the rim pattern to stand out much in the mix. 6. Raise your seat for better ergonomics. Slouching is not good for your back or your playing. Although some players insist that they like their drums at certain levels, they may not have considered the ergonomics of their choices. Their drum heights in relation to their throne could be limiting for their body. Posture helps you move efficiently. By raising your throne so your knee is slightly below your hip on a horizontal plane, your leg muscles will have a more powerful range of motion. This includes your feet, especially if you play with your heel down. The snare drum and hi hat positioning is the next pieces that I adjust. I like the snare with a slight angle toward me, but completely flat works fine, too. The hi hat should be positioned so that as my left or right arm moves over to play it, the shoulder of the stick can comfortably reach the edge of the cymbals. https://youtu.be/0PSjDr-KW2k 7. Invert a splash cymbal and stack it to save space. A small splash inverted and placed on top of a crash saves space, reduces the hardware load, and it looks cool. I started doing this because I forgot my hardware and still wanted to use the cymbal. After that, I started setting up the splash like this for the next few years because it was less weight to carry. The concept is simple. Place a felt in between the two cymbals. Make sure there’s enough plastic sleeve left to protect the splash from the metal of the cymbal stand. If the cymbal metal rubs on the stand metal, it will wear a notch into the cymbal. If you run out of felt, take a thick one and rip it in half. Most felts will come apart and are already thick enough to do their job. This could also solve the problem of not having enough plastic sleeve to protect the cymbal because the felt between the two cymbals would be half as thick. Related: Splash Cymbal Mounting Hardware 8. Play a shaker in one hand and a stick in the other. This is a simple idea that not enough drummers practice. Lot’s of songs could benefit from changing up the hi hat or ride pattern, and using a shaker instead is a great way to achieve some contrast. It’s not something I would do on a gig for the first time. You need to practice with difference shakers and have at least three different sounds that could work for your songs. Practicing before hand is also critical for the simple reason that picking it up and putting it down can be tricky during transitions in the song. The pattern doesn’t have to be generic or unorganized. Treat the shaker pattern like you would the hi hat or ride patter. Add rhythm that’s deliberate and establishes a particular style for the groove. Practice playing accented and unaccented notes with the shaker, too. 9. Use your finger to better tune the drum. Tuning drum heads is about balancing the head tension at all of the tension rods. This is most easily achievable when you can compare the pitches near each rod and make adjustments accordingly. By placing your finger in the center of the drum before comparing these pitches, you can better isolate the pitches near the tension rods. When you place your finger in the center of the drum head, the waves cancel out before exciting the opposite areas of the head. Without the other areas of the head resonating, you can better focus on the tuning of each tension rod. Before tuning each rod, make sure you dampen the opposite drum head (if you have one) and check the head near the two rods next to the one you are tuning as well as the opposite rods. These nearby and opposite rids will affect the tuning, so you want to prioritize before cranking one rod or another. Related: How to Tune Drums Like a Pro 10. Place old shirts on the drum heads for a super dead sound. It doesn’t need to be old shirts. If you have towels or old pillow cases, those work, too. The idea is that the extreme dampening can sound cool on snares and toms, especially if you are looking for layering drum parts and want a contrast between layers. This is one of the things Ringo Starr did often for recording sessions. He actually used a variety of materials, including tea towels. Try it out! Final Thoughts Many of the hacks on this list are common sense and ideas that I've learned along the way from drummers and engineers. Please share your hacks in the comments below. We would all love to hear what you’re doing to make better sounds and do more with what you have. Related Articles "What Makes a Good Drummer? 40 Bad Habits to Avoid"