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A rim click on the snare drum made with the stick laid across the head.
A snare-drum technique marked in words over the part (side stick, cross stick or rim click), often with a special notehead such as an x or a circled x on the snare line; notation varies, so the words matter. It lasts until the part returns to ordinary strokes (ord. or normal).
Also spelled: Sidestick
The stick lies across the head, its tip on the skin, while the shaft clicks against the rim: a dry, woody knock, much quieter than an ordinary stroke. It belongs to drum-kit writing — ballads, bossa nova, soft backbeats. Do not confuse it with a rimshot, which strikes head and rim together for a loud crack.
Side Stick is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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