There is no rebound.
Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2023 1:07 am
Aerodrums officially uses "apparent lack of rebound" to describe air drumming. This is misleading. There is no rebound. None at all.
Rebound describes how much the stick bounces after striking a surface. There is zero bounce from the palm. What they should say is "There is no rebound, but you don't need any".
With high rebound surfaces, such as a gum rubber practice pad, you have to get your hand out of the way of the stick fast (ie. follow the stick). The stick rises back to the top of the stroke entirely from the energy of rebound.
With lower rebound surfaces, the stick doesn't rise all by itself as well. If you've become accustomed to the fast stick return from high rebound, your wrist will do extra work to carry some of the stick weight. If you're not used to this, you have to practice more on these low rebound surfaces.
I think this is primarily what "pad hands" refers to.
The RTOM moongel workout pad has more rebound than the palm of the hand. It's not much and the stick doesn't bounce up very high. So it's work to lift the stick the rest of the way. And that's what makes it a workout.
The crucial difference with zero rebound is that the wrist has to carry the weight of the stick up all the way up. Starting from when the stick is horizontal where it 'weighs' the most. This is why the Aerodrums supplied sticks are lightweight. Using your favourite pair of sticks can be counterproductive until you've built up the muscles/tendons for that extra weight.
I've been struggling to understand why it's so hard to produce fast air drum strokes. So I've been recently studying the 'rebound rebuttal' video and the moving gifs on the kickstarter page. Nowhere do they come out and say that there is zero rebound. It's implied that the "apparent lack of rebound" is addressed by the butt of the stick contacting the fleshy part of the palm.
The only way the stick rises is if some motion of the wrist moves the stick back up. I think it's important to understand that because the way things from Aerodrums are worded, you might (like me) be thinking that you're doing something wrong when there is zero rebound. It's not you. There is no rebound.
Now this should be good for technique. It's not unlike playing on a pillow.
But there is something else amiss. I can play fast (enough) doubles on a pillow or blanket. These are zero rebound surfaces too, but the difference is that the impact happens at the tip of the stick. This has the effect of stabilising the stick (the energy is absorbed) in my loose grip. In the air, I find I have to control the stick's lateral movement and that tightens my grip. And by grip, I don't mean how tight the fulcrum is holding the stick. I'm talking about the rest of the hand behind the fulcrum. This different way of restraining the stick feels awkward and uncoordinated which explains the lack of ability. Or rather why it doesn't just transfer.
I use a middle finger fulcrum in a palm down grip (not as pronated as german) which may be part of the problem. If I switch to index finger fulcrum, the hand behind the fulcrum has more fingers on the stick. I guess it stabilises it better. However, index finger fulcrum feels very awkward. I don't normally use it. So it's not any faster for me.
The testing I did above was with a 5A hickory stick. It amplifies the issues compared to Aerodrums sticks. For comparison, my 5A hickory stick weighs 56g, my 5A maple stick weighs 45g and my Aerodrums stick weighs 42g. They are roughly all the same overall length and roughly the same weight distribution (ie. balance point).
The obvious solution is to dedicate some time to practising these air drum strokes specifically for Aerodrums use. In my case, it doesn't transfer back to the kit.
I thought I would post this to help anyone with similar struggles zero in on the issues. It definitely takes more physical training to play Aerodrums if you don't regularly practise on low rebound surfaces. And maybe some additional work if you don't already use the index finger fulcrum.
I should mention that you can 'fake' some rebound by choking up on the stick. Moving the fulcrum towards the tip of the stick biases the weight so that the butt of the stick will fall when the stick is horizontal. But you have to move ridiculously close to the tip of the stick for that to work. Adding enough weight to the butt of the stick, to move the centre of mass behind the fulcrum, feels better. However, it's more work for the fingers. I'm not saying this is practical and it's not technically rebound.
Rebound describes how much the stick bounces after striking a surface. There is zero bounce from the palm. What they should say is "There is no rebound, but you don't need any".
With high rebound surfaces, such as a gum rubber practice pad, you have to get your hand out of the way of the stick fast (ie. follow the stick). The stick rises back to the top of the stroke entirely from the energy of rebound.
With lower rebound surfaces, the stick doesn't rise all by itself as well. If you've become accustomed to the fast stick return from high rebound, your wrist will do extra work to carry some of the stick weight. If you're not used to this, you have to practice more on these low rebound surfaces.
I think this is primarily what "pad hands" refers to.
The RTOM moongel workout pad has more rebound than the palm of the hand. It's not much and the stick doesn't bounce up very high. So it's work to lift the stick the rest of the way. And that's what makes it a workout.
The crucial difference with zero rebound is that the wrist has to carry the weight of the stick up all the way up. Starting from when the stick is horizontal where it 'weighs' the most. This is why the Aerodrums supplied sticks are lightweight. Using your favourite pair of sticks can be counterproductive until you've built up the muscles/tendons for that extra weight.
I've been struggling to understand why it's so hard to produce fast air drum strokes. So I've been recently studying the 'rebound rebuttal' video and the moving gifs on the kickstarter page. Nowhere do they come out and say that there is zero rebound. It's implied that the "apparent lack of rebound" is addressed by the butt of the stick contacting the fleshy part of the palm.
The only way the stick rises is if some motion of the wrist moves the stick back up. I think it's important to understand that because the way things from Aerodrums are worded, you might (like me) be thinking that you're doing something wrong when there is zero rebound. It's not you. There is no rebound.
Now this should be good for technique. It's not unlike playing on a pillow.
But there is something else amiss. I can play fast (enough) doubles on a pillow or blanket. These are zero rebound surfaces too, but the difference is that the impact happens at the tip of the stick. This has the effect of stabilising the stick (the energy is absorbed) in my loose grip. In the air, I find I have to control the stick's lateral movement and that tightens my grip. And by grip, I don't mean how tight the fulcrum is holding the stick. I'm talking about the rest of the hand behind the fulcrum. This different way of restraining the stick feels awkward and uncoordinated which explains the lack of ability. Or rather why it doesn't just transfer.
I use a middle finger fulcrum in a palm down grip (not as pronated as german) which may be part of the problem. If I switch to index finger fulcrum, the hand behind the fulcrum has more fingers on the stick. I guess it stabilises it better. However, index finger fulcrum feels very awkward. I don't normally use it. So it's not any faster for me.
The testing I did above was with a 5A hickory stick. It amplifies the issues compared to Aerodrums sticks. For comparison, my 5A hickory stick weighs 56g, my 5A maple stick weighs 45g and my Aerodrums stick weighs 42g. They are roughly all the same overall length and roughly the same weight distribution (ie. balance point).
The obvious solution is to dedicate some time to practising these air drum strokes specifically for Aerodrums use. In my case, it doesn't transfer back to the kit.
I thought I would post this to help anyone with similar struggles zero in on the issues. It definitely takes more physical training to play Aerodrums if you don't regularly practise on low rebound surfaces. And maybe some additional work if you don't already use the index finger fulcrum.
I should mention that you can 'fake' some rebound by choking up on the stick. Moving the fulcrum towards the tip of the stick biases the weight so that the butt of the stick will fall when the stick is horizontal. But you have to move ridiculously close to the tip of the stick for that to work. Adding enough weight to the butt of the stick, to move the centre of mass behind the fulcrum, feels better. However, it's more work for the fingers. I'm not saying this is practical and it's not technically rebound.