Many drummers feel unsure about how to play drums with brushes, even though they love the sound. Brushes aren’t as complicated as they seem, and they’re useful in far more than just Jazz. In this article, I’ll cover brush technique, the kinds of music I use brushes in, the brushes I rely on, and how you can start using them with confidence.
Brushes Changed My Drumming Destiny
One day my high school band teacher Kent Rausch busted into a groovin’ Samba beat drumming with brushes. That moment changed my life.
Up until that point, I was mostly a sticks drummer. The year before, I had the opportunity to study a bit with the great Jeff Hamilton at a Jazz camp and got some brushing basics under my belt.
I still wasn’t sure how to play drums with brushes but after seeing Mr. Rausch play Samba, I was sold. Brushes would become half of my drumming focus for the next 35 years.
How To Play Drums With Brushes – The Technique
I could actually write an entire book on the brushes technique that drummers’ use and have used over the years. Regarding drum grip, some drummers play with traditional grip and some with matched grip.
Many drummers like to slide their left had to the middle of the brush and others play it closer to the end.
Some drummers like the feel of clockwise motion with circular brushes patterns and others like a counter-clockwise motion. Digging in (pushing down harder) with the brushes vs. a lighter touch is another thing I see in drummers’ brush playing.
So many factors go into a drummer’s style brush playing. This is one of the biggest reasons I think drumming brushes make it so easy to create our individual sound.
Brushes In Many Styles
Most of the time, we think of drumming with brushes and playing Jazz on the drums. Of course, brushes have a long history of playing Jazz music. However, I often use drumming brushes when I play Funk, Hip-Hop, R & B, Soul, Samba (like Mr. Rausch) and tons of the music styles.
In the video above, I’m playing more of an eighth note beat but incorporating some Jazzy circular motions into the groove. The smooth factor in brush playing gives me many more sounds and textures than simply using sticks alone.
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Vic Firth Heritage Brushes – My Choice for Drumming With Brushes
I have used the Vic Firth Heritage Brushes for over a decade now. I’ve used many other models over the years but the Heritage brushes are it for me.
I’ve actually written another article about these brushes too. It’s a kind of product review and will give you more details about why I like these brushes the best for my drumming.
More Opportunities With Brush Playing
Simply said, learning how to play drums with brushes will add a whole new dimension to your drumming and get you more gigs. Through my brush playing, I have found creative and fun ways to make music sound better in recording sessions, live performances and at rehearsals.
Drummers who can use brushes get called for a much wider range of gigs than drummers who can only use drum sticks. In Fact, EVERY professional drummer I know, can use drumming brushes to some degree.
Drumming with brushes is often, however, the weakest part of a drummer’s skill set. I hear drummers say that brushes are very difficult to learn. These same drummers also say that they’d love to use brushes more in their playing.
A Course On How to Play Drums with Brushes
Because of this problem, I created the most comprehensive drum brushes course available to help drummers who want to improve their brush playing.
It’s called the Brushes Mastery Course, I have helped 100’s of drummers from 32 countries use brushes in their Jazz, Latin, Funk, Hip-Hop and other styles of drumming. I’d love to help you too.
Final Thoughts On How To Play Drums With Brushes
As music continues to evolve, we as drummers have to evolve too. More than ever, producers, sound engineers, song-writers and arrangers are looking for alternate sound sources for sampling and music production.
Drumming with brushes can meet that demand giving us countless additional sounds and textures for our gigs. These sounds and textures can be used in virtually every style of modern music, not only in Jazz. The only limitation we have in playing brushes, is our imagination.
If you’d like to dig deeper into brush playing, you might also enjoy another article I wrote about the art of playing brushes. I encourage you to explore drumming with brushes and see how they can improve the expressiveness and musicality of your drumming. Keep swinging my friend!