Glen Sobel Stick Trick Revelation

I’ve been researching stick tricks lately. Yesterday, I stumbled upon this very short video of Glen Sobel (Alice Cooper), from a drum clinic in 2010. The clip shows a stick twirl that I’ve been doing for a long long time, but the revelation is that he spins the stick in the opposite direction from the way I’ve been doing it for years.

First check out the video:

The reason this is revelatory for me is that with the stick moving in the “backwards” direction, you can use the trick on any stroke on the drums that you choose, and this allows the trick to be used much more while you are actually playing. Glen demonstrates this very clearly at the end of the clip. That being said, keep in mind that you don’t want to look like a show-off douche bag, so I plan on having this trick “in my pocket” and using it sparingly.

I am now re-learning this move using the “backwards” stick direction so I can incorporate it into my playing. It is going to be a lot of work. But did you see how cool it looked when Glen played that simple drum beat and incorporated the twirls? It looks magical!

By the way, Glen is an unbelievably great drummer. I am going to have to look more deeply into his playing. I think it will be worth delving into…