Brush technique
starts with dynamics and feel.
Straight up: DrumShed's click voices are sticks, not brushes. What it gives you under brush practice is the timekeeper and the dynamics coach — the two things sweep work actually needs.
Build brush-ready skills
Brushes live at pp, sliding between a swept legato and a tapped backbeat. That control carries straight over from the dynamics and feel-transition drills.
Dynamic control
Practice playing at whisper volumes with the Dynamic Control drill. Brushes demand pp-level control that sticks don't.
Feel transitions
Move between straight and swing feels smoothly. Brush playing lives in the transitions between rhythmic feels.
Ghost notes
Build grooves heavy on ghost notes. Brush patterns are almost entirely ghost-level dynamics with occasional accents.
Jazz grooves
The beat builder includes jazz presets — the genre where brushes live. Build swing patterns to practice along with.
Jazz records between drills
Put on the jazz records you know between drills in a practice session — Apple Music on iOS, with your own Apple Music subscription (All Access).
Brush routine sessions
Chain Dynamic Control, Feel Transitions, and a swing groove into one session. Voice cues call each drill so you never put the brushes down to check the phone.
Three brush exercises
Brushes on the snare, phone running the click. The app keeps time and cues dynamics; the sweep technique is between you and the drumhead.
Circles under quarter time
LH sweeps circles · RH taps 1-2-3-4Left hand sweeps a continuous clockwise circle on the head — one full rotation per bar — while the right taps quarter notes on top of the click. Basic Metronome at 60 BPM. The circle should never hitch when the right hand lands. Ten minutes of this is the foundation of every ballad you'll ever brush.
Lateral sweeps with a swing click
Side-to-side sweep · swing 8thsSet the click subdivision to swung eighths around 90 BPM. Right hand sweeps side to side — away on the beat, back on the skip note — while the left taps 2 and 4. You're matching the sweep's direction change to the swing, which is the thing recordings teach slowly and a click teaches fast.
Whisper to shout
Dynamic Control drill, pp → ffRun the Dynamic Control drill in Crescendo mode with taps only, no sweep. Brushes compress your dynamic range — ff with a brush is quieter than mf with a stick — so the drill's cued ramp forces you to find six honest levels inside a smaller window. 70 BPM, eighth notes.
Practice this in DrumShed
Coming to iPhone, iPad & Android
Capture it. Shed it.
Keep it.
Develop the touch that brushes demand.