The use of the fulcrum has, to my knowledge, been a greatly examined topic and subject to much experimentation, especially in regards to match grip mechanics (which is what this post deals with). I’ve observed more attention being brought to it in the past decade or so, maybe because of my particular environment and who I know. Or perhaps it’s been the introduction of different techniques in the drumline arena, or maybe it’s just the natural result of furthering, enhancing, and gaining knowledge of our craft.

I’ve observed that several texts and teachers have tried to explain the concept of the fulcrum in ways that I, personally, think is either confusing or contradicting to science and definition; I say “contradicting” because I want to avoid saying “incorrect”… even though I feel compelled to do so. I want to avoid the impression that there is a correct and incorrect technique (unless it is harmful, of course). But, let’s face it: some of these explanations just don’t make sense, scientifically, or at least they’re being explained in one way while they actually mean something else, which doesn’t follow my philosophy of saying what you mean and meaning what you say.

First, some definitions. Let’s start with the fulcrum, since that’s the topic:

Fulcrum
Merriam-Webster provides this definition…

• The support about which a lever turns.

…and Dictionary.com aggregates these:

• The support, or point of rest, on which a lever turns in moving a body. (Random House Dictionary)
• The point or support on which a lever pivots. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition and The American Heritage Stedman’s Medical Dictionary)
• The point or support on which a lever turns. The position of the fulcrum, relative to the positions of the load and effort, determines the type of lever. (The American Heritage Science Dictionary)

I like this last one because it provides a diagram:

The American Heritage Science Dictionary
Copyright 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

In the end, the fulcrum is basically a pivot point for a lever. And this begs the question, what is a lever?

Lever
Merriam-Webster says…

• A rigid piece that transmits and modifies force or motion when forces are applied at two points and it turns about a third; specifically : a rigid bar used to exert a pressure or sustain a weight at one point of its length by the application of a force at a second and turning at a third on a fulcrum.

…and Dictionary.com aggregates the following:

• A rigid bar that pivots about one point and that is used to move an object at a second point by a force applied at a third. (Dictionary.com itself)
• A simple machine consisting of a bar that pivots on a fixed support, or fulcrum, and is used to transmit torque. A force applied by pushing down on one end of the lever results in a force pushing up at the other end. If the fulcrum is not positioned in the middle of the lever, then the force applied to one end will not yield the same force on the other, since the torque must be the same on either side of the fulcrum. Levers, like gears, can thus be used to increase the force available from a mechanical power source. (The American Heritage Science Dictionary)
• A simple machine consisting of a rigid bar pivoted on a fixed point and used to transmit force, as in raising or moving a weight at one end by pushing down on the other. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

This last one comes with a diagram that is similar to the previous diagram.

Essentially, a lever is a straight, rigid device (such as a bar, but a plank of wood can be a lever, too, right?) that rests upon a fulcrum. Force is applied at one point (the effort) causing the lever to pivot at the fulcrum, thus moving another point on the lever (the load).

One more definition, okay?

Leverage
This one is pretty simple. Both Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com both define “leverage” as “the action of a lever.”

The point?
Alright, alright… the point… as in the pivot point.

If the fulcrum is the pivot point, then the way the hand grips the stick in the match grip means that the thumb and the index finger form the fulcrum of the stick. It’s that simple.

First, let’s talk about the other fulcrum that everyone talks about but no one calls a fulcrum because… well… it’s just easier to say wrist. If you view a stick being held in the right hand from the thumb-side view – with the bead on your left and the hand gripping the stick on your right – then from left to right you have the load (the stick), the effort (your grip on the stick), and the fulcrum (your wrist). If you do not open your fingers and simply raise the stick using only your wrist, then your wrist is indeed the fulcrum as your wrist is the pivot upon which the lever – your hand – is moved.

Now, take a look at the hand. If you open your fingers away from the palm during the upstroke initiated by the wrist, then your stick is the second lever in the system. From left to right, you’ve got the load (the bead, taper, and shaft of the stick), the fulcrum (your thumb and index finger), and the effort (the opening of your fingers to allow momentum to move the stick inside your hand, while always keeping contact with the stick). Momentum is caused by the load traveling upwards, thus causing the butt of the stick to travel downwards along with the opening of the fingers. You, the drummer, control this momentum by determining how much your fingers come away from the palm.

During the downstroke, your wrist as the fulcrum puts the lever – the hand – into playing position and the stick travels with the lever. For a single note and staccato notes, your fingers close back to the palm so that the stick pivots at the fulcrum and returns to a level position with the hand. For multiple legato notes, your fingers either remain open and let the stick rest inside the fingers, barely pivoting at the thumb/index finger fulcrum along with the momentum of each up and downstroke, or, depending on the speed and stick height, the fingers slightly “pull” the stick towards the palm with every downstroke to aid the wrist in stroking the stick, thus obviously pivoting the stick at the thumb/index finger fulcrum.

Now, let’s take a look at this thumb and index finger combination.

Generally, most drummers would agree that the thumbpad will be on the stick so that the thumb is parallel to it. The use of the index finger differs from drummer to drummer: it can either be wrapped around, loosely wrapped around with the fingertip slightly off of the stick, very loose so that the finger dangles a bit, or the index finger can be “pointing” off of the stick. Some drummers change the tension of the index finger wrap depending on what they are playing and how fast or slow.

You’ll notice that no matter the how loose or secure the index finger is around the stick, it touches the stick at all times; at its most loose, the back part of the finger at the hand is always on top of the stick, meaning that as the stick arcs up, the index finger is “in the way” and the stick will have no choice but to pivot against it with the thumb as the index finger’s counterpart. This thumb/index finger combination creates an axis so long as the index finger stays on the stick. Therefore, the thumb and index finger combination is the fulcrum in all cases. The looser the index finger around the stick, the less secure that part of the fulcrum and the more reliant you are on the thumb as the secure part and your back fingers to control the effort of movement.

Some teachers have talked about moving the fulcrum to the middle finger. Technically, this can’t be done unless you completely remove the index finger from the stick. First, as long as it stays on the stick, no matter how loose, the thumb/index finger combination remains present, so the stick will pivot against that. Second, as long as the thumb stays on the stick, that is where the stick will pivot because the effort of movement remains behind the thumb: the fingers.

Third, in order for the middle finger to be a part of the fulcrum system, it must become a pivot point. In order to do this, either the middle finger must move forward on the stick so that it rests across from the thumb, thus stretching out the finger and reducing its curl around the stick, or the thumb must move back on the stick so that it rests across from the middle finger, which means you’d be tucking your thumb into your hand. In the former case, your grip would be very, very loose and so would the fulcrum. In order to add security to the fulcrum, you would have to pinch the middle finger and thumb together, causing greater tension in a grip that has become open with the stretching out of the middle finger, which kind of defeats the purpose of this loose grip. Also, the in order to get the index finger completely off the stick, you have to lift if up and keep it off the stick, which means the index finger doesn’t get to relax. Of course, you could allow the index finger’s tip to rest on the stick, allowing it to relax, but then it’s just in the way of the upstroke. After some experimentation, I figure this type of grip would be okay for playing quietly, but not loudly. However, I can play just as relaxed, loose, and quiet with my index finger as part of my fulcrum system.

In the latter case of the thumb being tucked into the hand, doing so to meet the middle finger’s original position results in a very scrunched, uncomfortable, unstable, tense grip. For me, personally, it also hurts the back of my hand.

In both cases, it renders the index finger useless, which goes against my philosophy of, “If you have five fingers, put them all to use.”

Here’s a hypothetical situation: the hand grips the stick with the match grip and the index finger is loosely around the stick. If the goal is to move the fulcrum to the middle of the hand, that would mean the stick must pivot there in order to follow the literal definition of “fulcrum”. For sake of argument, let’s place the hypothetical fulcrum at the middle finger and, for sake of argument, we’ll leave the thumb in it’s original position. How will the stick pivot at the middle finger, located in the middle of the hand, if the front of the hand is in the way?

Here’s an experiment to go with the hypothetical situation: Grip the stick in the hand of your choice. Hold the stick with your opposite hand at the bead and taper. Now, leaving your gripping hand in the same position, simply let your index finger naturally dangle off the stick so that, while your hand looks the same from the top, the finger is no longer touching the bottom of the stick. Now, with your opposite hand, create an upwards arc with the stick to emulate an upstroke, but don’t flex the wrist. Only let your remaining fingers move with the stick. Watch the stick rotate in your hand while keeping an eye on our hypothetical pivot point: the middle of the hand at the middle finger. Notice how the front of the hand is in the way? This causes the stick to pivot at this point because as the front of the stick goes up, it presses against the front of the hand. The only way to create a true pivot point in the middle of the hand is to completely remove the index finger and either adjust the middle finger’s or the thumb’s position, which would then present scenario three above.

(We could completely, and literally, remove/chop off the front of our hand, including the thumb, but then that would just make the middle of the hand the new front of the hand, wouldn’t it?)

Some teachers talk about the control of the fulcrum moving to the middle of the hand, which is different from the idea of using the middle finger as part of the stick’s fulcrum system. The looser your thumb/index finger system is, the more reliant you become on your middle, ring, and pinky to control the momentum and movement of the stick. I think of the middle finger as the fulcrum’s first officer. It’s in the strongest position to take over “security” when the index finger loosens up and the burden of leverage falls even heavier on the other fingers. And here’s where we make use of that word, “leverage”:

Momentum of the stick is created by the upstroke of the wrist and controlled by the tension of the fulcrum and the openness of the index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers away from the palm. During the downstroke, momentum is created by the wrist and sometimes the fingers, depending on what is being played and how fast. Allowing these fingers to open (and, subsequently, close) gives the lever – the stick – leverage. Not opening them means there is no leverage of the stick. Thus, we can call the finger collective the “leverage system” of the stick (remember, the wrist is a pivot point of the hand, not the actual stick itself as the stick is the load of the hand and therefore doesn’t provide the actual stick any leverage).

The looser the index finger is, the less it needs to open because if it’s loose then it’s already partially open. This means the burden of opening to provide leverage to the stick moves to the remaining fingers of the leverage system: the middle, ring, and pinky fingers. Since the middle finger is next to the index, it becomes next in line to provide security to the grip of the stick, still with the aid of the ring and pinky fingers.

In its most simple concept, the fulcrum of the stick is the pivot point. Because the fulcrum system consists of a muscular device we know as the index finger, some of the effort of movement can come from that finger in addition to its role as the thumb’s counterpart as the pivot point. As the index finger loosens, we can move the effort towards the back fingers while keeping the fulcrum at the front. As such, it is important, I think, to stop confusing the change in leverage control with any change in the fulcrum itself. Keep it simple: the fulcrum of the stick is the pivot point at the thumb and index finger, and the fingers are the leverage system of the stick.

With simple science and knowledge of how the words “fulcrum”, “lever”, and “leverage” are literally defined, we can examine more precisely how the fulcrum of the stick is formed, how it functions, and how the rest of the hand functions along with it. Hopefully this precision in examination also helps educators to convey precise information to their students.
 
 
 
 
I haven’t even gotten to traditional grip, yet. 😉