Science+fair+literature+review

Christian Molander Pd 8 __Sources__

“Selecting the right drumstick tip”. //[|www.rockdrummingsystem.com]//. 2007. October 5 2009. <[]>

“How to select drumsticks”. //[|www.drumsticks.com]//. 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

“Picking out your perfect pair!”. //[|www.vicfirth.com]//. 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

“Percussion mallet”. //Wikipedia//. October 5 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

“Types of drum sticks”. //[|www.drumsetworkouts.com]//. 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

“Choosing the right drumsticks”. //[|www.rockdrummingsystem.com]//. 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

“How to choose a drumstick”. //[|www.ehow.com]//. 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

“Which wood is the best?”. //Pro-mark drumstick corporation//. 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

“Guide to drum sticks”. //[|www.pickyguide.com]//. 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

“Drumsticks and drums”. //[|www.musicalinstrumentsdrum.com]//. 2009. October 5 2009. <[]>

__Background Info / History__ Drumsticks are wooden or plastic sticks that are used to play percussion instruments such as a trap-set or a snare drum. They come in many different sizes, shapes, colors, and textures. Some sticks are designed a different way to be used for different jobs or activities. They may be dipped for better grip, fit with rubber cores for better bounce, or even crafted a totally different way for different styles and sounds. They can be made from a variety of woods, most commonly maple, oak, and hickory. Each of these woods have their own properties that make the sticks unique. Maple is usually a softer wood than oak and hickory, so larger sticks can be made from it without increasing the weight so much as if it were made with one of the harder woods. Hickory usually lasts longest out of all of them, even though it is not considered a ‘hardwood’. It is slightly heavier than oak, and is usually used for making heavy duty sticks that are supposed to last for a while. Sticks are also sometimes fit with nylon tips at the end to make cymbal hits sound brighter, because wood hitting cymbals gives it a darker, warmer feel than plastic hitting cymbals. Back in the days of swing clubs and jazz concerts, nylon tips didn’t even exist, but now nylon-tipped sticks are now widely used all over the world for trap-sets. Even the butt end of various sticks can be used to get a different sound out of cymbals and drums. The thickness of the stick can change the sound of rim clicks and rim shots too. Bounce is basically how much rebound you get when a certain amount of force is applied to the stick to hit the drum. The aim of my project is to find which kind of stick out of a select few can get the best bounce off of a snare drum, because the main thing a drummer looks for in a good pair of sticks is how well it bounces.

__Lab Equipment / Materials__ For my materials for this project, I will need a snare drum, a ruler, and a few pairs of drumsticks. The snare drum is the most commonly used drum in marches and other orchestrations, and is also tighter-skinned than other drums, such as the toms. This will make the bounce better, because tighter skin means better rebound. The different kinds of drumsticks will be used to figure out which one has the most bounce. The ruler will be used to measure how high the bounce is in centimeters.

__Information Needed__ I need to know how high the bounce is for each type of stick on the snare drum. The height will be measured in centimeters.

__How I Will Make It Work__ I will mount my snare drum and alternate through the different types of sticks. I will find the bounce height of each type of stick by hitting the snare at the fulcrum point (point of best bounce) from 4 centimeters above the drum skin. In doing this, I ensure that no certain stick bounces higher due to greater or lesser momentum. I will repeat the process with each stick 10 times, then calculate the average height of each stick’s rebound off of the snare drum, and then graph the data in a bar graph. The sticks I will be using are maple, hickory, nylon-tipped, bulky, and timbale. These will most likely provide different results based on the different characteristics that come into play in each of these types of sticks.