Why Do Some Drummers Wear Gloves?

If you’ve paid attention to various drummers closely enough, you will have likely encountered a few wearing gloves while playing! At first this may seem counterintuitive as you’d think that drummers would want to feel their sticks with skin contact. It turns out that there are some pretty good reasons for wearing drum gloves though!

Drumming gloves protect a drummer’s hands by preventing blisters or callouses caused by the constant, repetitive motion inherent in playing the drums. They can also help drummers maintain a better grip on sticks though some drummers just wear them for the looks as they can add a cool aesthetic to your live show.

I’ve done a bit more research on this topic and will dive into the details of why drumming gloves might become your new best friend. Finally, I’ll also make a few product recommendations for you in this article.

Blister Prevention & Shock Absorption

The drumming community is very clearly divided on the topic of drumming gloves and I suspect the primary reason why is this particular section of the article.

I used to despise drumming gloves because I spent YEARS of my life practicing hours every single day, which built up a fair amount of callouses on my hands. They helped protect my hand against blistering and were essentially my own built-in gloves!

Because of these callouses, I was always a nay-sayer of drumming gloves because I viewed it as somewhat of a right of passage for drummers to build up their callouses.

It was only later in life that I realized this was purely egotistical nonsense. Not only that, but I joined a heavy metal cover band, which was my first exposure to super heavy drumming in a live setting.

It was this experience that opened my eyes up to the benefit of drumming gloves: keeping my hands in good shape, especially in heavy hitting scenarios. The use of drumming gloves helped save my hands so that I could play longer and not get injured by the abuse of playing heavy styles of music.

Better Grip When Things Get Sweaty

Again, some folks in the drumming community would say that this reason for wearing drum gloves is hogwash – but I’m willing to bet that those same people don’t have overactive sweat glands.

I don’t know about you, but there have been many times during rehearsal or shows where I’ve had a stick slip from my hand because I lost my grip on a pair of super sweaty drum sticks.

So – for those people whose sweat glands activate at the slight notion of physical activity, I say that drumming gloves are welcome insurance for those instances where you otherwise just couldn’t hold on to those sticks any longer.

Warmth

I’ve talked to a few drummers who use drumming gloves in the winter if they have to play outside – or in a cold theater. Part of injury prevention for drummers is utilizing proper warm-up techniques, which can only be aided by keeping your hands warm in periods where you don’t have to play for a while.

Seeing as drumming gloves are specifically designed for drumming, they are an excellent choice for this application in comparison to the knit wool gloves your grandmother made you for your birthday. Sure, the gloves she made are a fine fine pair – but your sticks are sure to go flying out of your hand if you play in them.

Famous Drummers Who Wear Gloves

The list of drummers who wear gloves regularly is actually quite distinguished – and all have opted to do so for many of the reasons listed in this article:

Carter Beauford of Dave Matthews Band fame is incredibly well known for his bright white drum gloves. Fun fact: the gloves he wears are actually FootJoy golf gloves rather than bespoke drum gloves.

Tomas Haake of the heavy metal band Meshuggah is a bit unique in that he only wears a glove on his right hand with grip tape on the stick as well. According to this write-up in Drum! Magazine about Haake, he sweats a lot and plays pretty hard – so the glove and grip tape are an effort for him to not have to expend so much energy on actually gripping the stick. This allows him to play heavy music, but with loose technique.

Stewart Copeland of The Police is rarely seen playing live without gloves and much like Carter, he prefers golf gloves. Nike Golf Tech Extremes to be exact. Regardless, if you’ve seen Stewart’s monstrous playing style – or just heart his insanely splatty flams – you’ll know why he wears gloves.

Vinnie Paul of Pantera (RIP) was famous for wearing gloves as well, though his were borrowed from professional football. Vinnie was arguably one of the best and most influential metal drummers – and he used his considerable body mass to lean into his drums and cymbals with heft, all the while making it look so easy.

Even the great Dave Grohl has often been seen wearing drummer’s gloves, most notably during his tenure as drummer for Them Crooked Vultures.

The Downside of Drumming Gloves

Despite their many benefits, primarily in the form of hand protection, there are a few downsides to consider when buying and adopting drumming gloves.

Weight:
When first put on, gloves seem quite light weight, however over time – the added weight can really add to your fatigue, especially if you play a lot of fast, repetitive drum parts. Metal blast beats are a perfect example of this.

Sensitivity & Control:
It goes without saying that adding a layer of fabric or leather between you and your sticks is going to impede your ability to FEEL the stick, and in turn affect your control and sensitivity. This is the primary reason that you only really see heavy hitters wear drumming gloves (instead of jazz drummers for instance).

Lack of Callouses:
The primary nay-sayers to drum gloves typically state the fact that with gloves on, you’re not building the callouses up on your hands over time. My take on this is that if you are someone who only occasionally plays loud and heavy music, drumming gloves make a whole lot of sense for you as you don’t need to build up huge callouses for your other playing opportunities.

Recommended gloves

Virtually every drum brand out there has a set of drum gloves as part of their product catalogue. Some of them seem to be better and more durable than others.

Additionally, you’ll likely have noticed that a lot of the drummers I’ve mentioned in this article actually prefer golf gloves. I think the reason for this is quite simple: Drum companies are not in the business of making gloves, while athletic companies are. The result is therefore a set of (golf) gloves which give you the protection, while at the same time preserving your feel of the stick.

Check out this page in my Recommended Gear section devoted to Drummers’ Gloves.

Alternatives to drum gloves

Grip Tape by Ahead is an excellent alternative solution to solving grip problems without having to sacrifice feel with a glove! It’s made by several different companies and adheres quite easily to your sticks.

Sanding Your Sticks: I’ve read a few comments in various forums that you can try and sand the varnish off of your stick to make it less slippery if you’re having grip problems. While I’ve never tried this myself – I can certainly see it working for some folks, but it does seem like a lot of effort.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully I’ve answered your question as to why some drummers wear gloves – and then some. Hand protection definitely seems to be the primary reason, followed closely by grip. If you are suffering from the above problems, give them a try and see if they can’t help you out too!