Traditional grip has come under considerable fire as of late in the drumming community. They say that because of its origins in marching where the drums were tilted, it loses most, if not all of its relevance in a world where mostly position our drums with much less angle then in the old days. They also cite (correctly) that matched grip is a much more natural grip. Both arguments have their merits, but I am of the opinion that traditional grip is and shall remain formidable presence for as long as there are drummers.

I will be the first to admit that matched grip has many advantages over traditional and may be a better general grip. However, there are some areas where traditional grip is superior to matched. One of these area is subtlety. Much of which has to do with the upside down nature of the traditional grip and its placement in front of the fulcrum an opposed to behind it. Subtly comes from the ability to control the stick beginning, during and after the stroke. While matched and traditional are roughly even in the beginning and the end of the stroke, traditional excels in the area of control of the stick during flight. This comes mostly from its being in front of the fulcrum.

Suppose you’re swinging a baseball bat at a punching bag. If you wanted to stop the bat just before it contacts the punching bag, where would you want to hold the bat? More than likely, you would want to grip the bat much closer to the part of the bat that you would actually strike the bag with. The leverage you sacrifice with the higher grip is gained back in control. In actuality, you don’t lose very much leverage with traditional grip because of the adjustability of the fulcrum between the thumb and forefinger. To gain back some leverage you can open up the grip to the point where you’re pretty much just bouncing the stick with your thumb. For more control you can close the grip to the point where the stroke is almost all turn of the forearm. The beautiful thing is that the grip of the fulcrum can be changed in an instant with traditional grip.

Another advantage of traditional grip is the ability to easily adjust the angle of the stick to drum head. The angle of the stick when contacting the drum head has much to do with the texture of the sound you get from hitting the drum. As the angle gets higher you get a lighter sound, making traditional grip great for light ghost note heavy music (like jazz.)

Assuming you have proper hand technique (like that found on Jojo Mayer’s DVD) there isn’t a huge difference between matched and traditional in terms of power and speed. Many would argue that matched has the advantage in those two areas. I’ll grant them that matched has a noticeable difference in terms of power, but in my experience, the difference in the area of speed is negligible, if it does in fact exist.

Another interesting area of comparison between the two grips is the mental aspect. Jojo Mayer talks about this in his DVD, he says that “if matched grip represents symmetry and sameness then traditional grip represents asymmetry and contrast.” I’ve found it to be true that I’m inspired to play different things when I play traditional grip then when I play matched. Generally I like the stuff I come up with in traditional grip more then what I do in matched.

I feel that this is a legitimate reason to learn both traditional and matched grips. All physical aspects aside, if something so simple can help us explore different areas of our creative minds then we owe it to ourselves and anyone who may listen to our music to explore those areas. I’ve always preached that you should learn both grips, matched first (preferably) and traditional second. I will give matched grip its due in another article, but until then, I encourage you to explore the asymmetric side of your creativity.

P.S.

Though they are rare, I have seen drummers who play with traditional grip both hands. If it weren’t for the fact that playing the ride cymbal and (to a lesser extent) the hi-hat is near impossible with both hands in traditional grip I’d probably learn that too.