this rudiment took me about 25 minutes to nail, not perfect but were not marching yet, i want to throw the casey claw into the show but my sticks keep getting caught in the rim (ralph hardimons) and i know my new snare wont be able to handle it, so what smaller sticks should we use?

No need for smaller sticks, just need to increase the angle of the stick. The sticks we used in '94 and '95 were SilverFox but were the exact same length as Hardimons, and we played the claw on 13 inch drums. The key is to slice enough to find that "sweet spot" where you're not catching the rim. Every drum will be minutely different because of the variations in rim height.

yeah, we had the claw in our show this year right at the beggining. We used Scott Johnsons on a 14 inch white max. Sounded good too.

i have to admit, i really do not know where my angle should be, it ends up different every time, (3 'o clock 4 'o clock would be really low wouldnt it?) i know last night i was thinking we could use the Jeff Queen's because of the double taper.

Old threads don’t die. They just fade away.

Still impressed from the 93 BOA Percussion Festival, I asked John Wilmarth to show me how to do the claw outside Centerville High School in 1994 which he kindly did. Back then it was a real novelty act that few had seen, a sure way to impress friends and family.

but the line does have to match heights and such (we only have 2 snares this year)

If the Line can do it watch their heights and watch their angle and where on the drum they are clawing at, and if it works for them it should work for you. Just keep going at it.

masturbate it helps (same motion). ahaha

ok about the helicopter. i can do the helicopter, which i need to angle the stick, but i really cant do the helicopter because then i'd have to angle both sticks, which is nearly impossible for me. is there a different technique with the angling for the helipcopter?