Revealed in this article…
- Brake parachute gaze fixation: the stick grip is not the only thing that matters – and there is no “one” stick grip…
- Two power strategies for your stick grip: why it can be an advantage if you are a beginner
- YOUR CHECKLIST – An instant mini guide to optimize your stick grip:
Get to know the important aspects that are directly related to your stick grip. Bring your set up in line with your stick grip and give your play that extra push INSTANTLY!
Dear friend of the drums,
Do you have the feeling that you miss the target or lose the stick all too often? That certain movement sequences don’t want to stop being ” sticky”, even when you practise them with focus? Do you enjoy watching your idols play drums on YouTube and then get frustrated because even simple things just don’t work the way you see your idols do?
If that’s how you feel and you end up with the obsession that you’re not even good enough to hold the sticks properly – then the following lines will seem like a small revelation to you.
Why? Well…
Your stick grip is only part of the whole
There are basically three ways of holding the sticks on a “normal” acoustic or electronic drumset. That’s a manageable amount, which means you probably copied your stick grip from somewhere or got it from a teacher.
Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for a while, you are or have been at the point of deciding on a stick grip – and you’ll most likely have stuck with it. Because even without “higher-faster-further” ambitions, you can’t avoid a certain amount of playing technique to be practiced in order to achieve smoothness, tempo, dynamics and stamina.
Since each stick grip takes up a part of the technique individually, you would have to start more or less from scratch every time you change your stick grip. However, you could work on other things during this time. So is it worth changing your stick grip?
Use a huge advantage as a beginner and get off to a catapult start
The more advanced you are, the more difficult it is to change your stick grip. This may sound more dramatic than it is. On the other hand, your advantage as an advanced player is that you are already familiar with your stick grip and have “practiced away” possible disadvantages.
As a beginner, however, you can still think carefully, weigh things up and make a conscious decision about your future stick grip.
- In the following, you will learn about the three most commonly used stick grips and get an idea of their advantages and disadvantages
- You understand the connection between setup and stick grip and can immediately set up your drumset according to your chosen stick grip
- You have already eliminated potential obstacles to playing and saved yourself unnecessary detours on the path of your musical development.
It’s basically “set it and forget it” (set it and then don’t worry about it). There should be no valid reason to reconsider your stick grip in the future.
Are you already an advanced drummer with an established stick grip? Here’s your strategy…
As already mentioned, the stick grip is only one part of the whole. How well you get on with your drumset also depends on whether you have set it up optimally. Be aware that you can be more accommodating to your stick grip with a few changes to your drum setup. You save detours to reach an instrument, which saves you time and energy. This alone will make you play more relaxed without having practiced anything new.
So read on and become aware of the pros and cons of your stick grip so you can see where on your set you can make improvements to the setup.
The hit parade of stick grips
To be honest, there are only a few hits, namely three in total. Here they are:
- Matched Grip
- Traditional Grip
- Open Handed.
Matched Grip
This stick grip is probably the most popular. No wonder, as it makes sense to hold both sticks in the same way, so that they mirror each other to a certain extent. The stick grip in the left hand matches that in the right hand, hence the name.
Matched Grip has several advantages:
- you can easily check that both hands are doing the same thing (as a right-handed person, you usually check your left hand against your right hand)
- you can create a mostly symmetrical setup and easily adjust the positions of the drums, cymbals and pads to your arm length
- Because both arms are aligned in the same direction, you don’t have to “bend” your set up unnecessarily.
However, the first point is perceived as a disadvantage by some drummers. This is because, in principle, both hands can (and should) do the same thing, but it almost never really feels the same. The expression “weak” or “strong” hand is very appropriate here. The Matched Grip practically begs for your playing to feel exactly the same in both hands. Some drummers find it annoying that this feeling doesn’t occur. They therefore prefer the Traditional Grip, which we will now take a closer look at.
Traditional Grip
The Traditional Grip takes its name from the old tradition of marching. In order to provide the necessary legroom when marching, the drum hung around the drummer’s shoulder on the left side. This caused the playing surface (the drumhead) to tilt. In order to reach the head better and with a shorter arm path, the drumstick was held differently in the left hand than in the right (the stick grip of the right hand corresponded to the matched grip).
When the “full” drumsets started over a hundred years ago, it was obvious to keep the traditional grip at first – there was no other way and it worked. It was not until larger drumsets and further developments that the matched grip became more and more important.
The traditional grip has survived to this day; it continues to dominate, especially in old-school jazz styles and in modern marching bands, whose drummers now position the snare straight in front of the body using special racks.
However, it does not provide any real advantages. On the contrary: on larger drumsets, the Traditional Grip can be restrictive and makes demands on the setup of the drumset.
In addition, the Traditional Grip requires special attention to the left hand (for right-handers), as the playing technique cannot easily be tested for both hands at the same time.
If you are already familiar with marching and are therefore used to the traditional grip, then of course it makes sense to stick with it!
Open Handed
This is a variant of the matched grip that gained popularity around the mid-1980s. One of the best-known drummers who plays open-handed is Simon Phillips, who had his breakthrough with the solo album “White City – A Novel” by Who-guitarist Pete Townshend and no later than when he joined the band Toto (as a replacement for the legendary drummer Jeff Porcaro, who had died shortly before) and has since influenced crowds of drummers worldwide.
As a right-handed player, you don’t play the hi-hat with your right hand, but with your left. The snare drum is operated accordingly with the right stick. As a result, there is no need to cross the sticks and there is an “open” gap between the hands. Open Handed is not particularly suitable for the Traditional Grip, as you have to create unnecessary angles in your arm and hand to achieve the same playing effect on the hi-hat.
Open Handed provides a false advantage by giving free access with the right stick to the toms (especially the floor toms on the right side of the set), while the hi-hat is operated with the left stick. In practical “common” play, however, this situation rarely occurs. Someone like Simon Phillips uses this to develop an unmistakable style of play.
Apart from that, as a right-handed player with the typical “strong” right hand, you will have to put a lot of work into fluid open-handed play. The right hand is best suited to the job on the hi-hat, while the left hand is perfect for the intricate details on the snare. Reversing these tasks is not only unfamiliar, but will also feel “wrong” for a very long time.
Want a practical example? Then, as a right-handed person, wind up the spaghetti once tonight with the fork in your left hand and bring it to your mouth…
So which stick grip is the best?
As is so often the case, there are no rules or laws governing stick grip. The three methods listed have proven their worth. Give it some careful thought and then decide on a stick grip. (If you are a beginner, I recommend playing with Matched Grip). You should then stick with it, because you can learn and practice other things while you are getting used to a new stick grip. Only if you have already started with Open Handed as a beginner (then you are basically playing Matched Grip), I recommend that you reconsider this carefully. As a right-handed player with Matched Grip, you will get better crosswise faster and with less effort.
Otherwise applies:
IT IS THE ADAPTATION OF YOUR SET TO YOUR STICK GRIP THAT IMPROVES YOUR GAME.
NOT A DIFFERENT STICK GRIP.
If you focus on optimally adapting your sitting position and setup to your stick grip, you’ll be doing yourself a big favor.
Because it’s often just the little things that make things easier. Always make sure that the instruments “meet you” and “come towards you”. This means that you position them so that they are more or less directly on the path that your drumstick takes.
Let’s take the snare as an example: basically, you should find a comfortable sitting height where your knees point slightly downwards or are straight (i.e. your thighs are parallel to the floor), but not pointing upwards. You should adjust the snare between your legs to your sitting height so that you don’t hit your thighs with the stick. If the snare is too high, you will often hit the rim without meaning to. A compromise is sometimes difficult to achieve, depending on the depth of the snare’s shell and how many other instruments in your drum set might be in the way.
In Matched Grip, you can often solve this problem simply by tilting the snare slightly towards you. This way, the rim dives under your stick and does not interfere any further. This allows you to strike the rim deliberately and precisely.
This can be problematic with the Traditional Grip, at least for the left hand. If the striking surface (in this case the rim) is too low, you have to turn your left hand a little further and move your arm down more than necessary to hit the target cleanly.
Here it is often better to either leave the snare straight or to tilt it down a little at two or three o’clock. This brings the snare closer to the position it has with the marching drummer (remember: that’s where the Traditional Grip comes from…). The height remains the same under the left stick, the rim sinks slightly under the right stick.
THE LONG-DISTANCE DRUMMER’S CHECKLIST
How to optimize your setup to your stick grip and make yourself comfortable
For all three stick grips, here are the most important places on your drumset where you can check and optimize the placement of the drums and cymbals.
Make sure your seat height is right! This determines the position of your snare; then it should be the height of the hi-hat and then the rest.
Matched Grip
Drum The starting point is the straight position of the . Set it high enough so that you don’t hit your legs with the stick while playing. If you accidentally hit the rim of the snare too often, tilt it slightly forward (straight towards you) until the ratio of height to accuracy is right.
Hi-Hat
Do not place the hi-hat cymbals too low to prevent the sticks from hitting each other when playing crosswise. On the other hand, you should avoid unnecessary movements with your right arm due to a hi-hat that is too high. The right technique plays an important role here, allowing you to perform loud strokes with little movement, so that the crossing sticks hardly cause any problems.
Also keep an eye on your foot position. It may be that the hi-hat cymbals are unnecessarily far away from or too close to the snare if you align your feet at an ideal angle to your sitting position. Normally the left foot forms the same angle to the drummer’s seat as the right foot. A compromise between a non-ideal angle of the foot and good reach of the hi-hat cymbals is absolutely fine; you should just avoid extremes.
Racktoms (hanging toms) and left side of your set
The starting point is the rack tom in front of you (i.e. directly “above” the snare); from there, all toms (side snare, octobans, pads, etc.) that may be to the left of this rack tom.
Especially to reach those toms that are mounted on the left, you will physically turn to the left accordingly when you play the toms with both hands. Find out how far you turn each time and adjust the corresponding instrument so that it behaves like the snare. Since the toms will be further away than the snare, you will hardly be able to hang them in a straight angle – you would only hit the rim. They will also hang higher than the snare so that you can reach the head at all.
Basically, you can consider the head of a tom as a face. When you turn towards the tom, it should “look” at you, so to speak. This is a good starting position from which you can make fine adjustments.
Now make sure that – as with the snare – you can hit the center of the head comfortably and accurately and, if necessary, perform a rimshot just as effortlessly.
The smaller your drums are, the more scope you have for fine adjustment. You may have to accept compromises with large drums.
Cymbals on the left side of your drumset
As a right-handed player, you are more likely to have crash cymbals on the left than ride cymbals. And you will probably prefer to play them with your left hand. As you can see the stick as an extension of your arm in the Matched Grip, it is not difficult to position and angle each cymbal so that you can reach it comfortably with your extended arm.
If you have several cymbals, it may well be that they need to be hung at different heights in order to be optimally reached.
The right side of your drumset
If your setup is reasonably standardized, it will be one or two floor toms on the right side. These are basically oriented to the snare drum, i.e. they have approximately the same height and may be tilted slightly forward (in other words: if you turn towards the floor toms, they will tilt in your direction).
If you place the toms higher than the snare, the same applies as with the rack toms: the higher the drums are, the more you have to bend them in your direction in order to reach them easily with both hands in the Matched Grip without constantly hitting the rims unintentionally.
Ride Cymbal
The ride has a special position, as you will rarely use it with your left hand in normal drumming. So concentrate on reaching the ride easily and comfortably with the right stick – both the bow and the edge.
Traditional Grip
The right side
The only place that could be a little critical is the floor tom area. As right-handers, we like to play from left to right over the toms to hit the crash cymbal on the right side.
If you find that you need to play the floor toms at an angle to reach the head and rim well with the Traditional Grip, pay also attention to playing the toms from right to left. You don’t want a stuck-out rim interfering with your low flight over the toms. This may require a little more fine-tuning during installation.
Ride Cymbal
The same applies here as with the Matched Grip: you can neglect the left hand. When setting up the ride, concentrate on good accessibility of the bow and edge with your right hand.
Snare Drum
The starting point is a snare set up straight. If you feel that you have to go too far down with your left hand to play a clean rimshot, tilt the snare down a little at around two o’clock. Then move the snare to a slightly higher position overall (this is often only a matter of 1-2 centimeters). Make sure that you do not make the situation „betterworse” for the right hand.
Rack toms
A major difference to the Matched Grip is that with the Traditional Grip you can (sometimes even have to) turn your left wrist to reach an instrument. The stick then no longer describes a straight path, but an arc. This in turn means that the angle of the stick when it hits the instrument is different from that of the Matched Grip.
In other words: the instruments on the left side of your set, starting with the rack tom above the snare, must be adjusted accordingly when setting up so that you can reach them without much effort! Especially with the rack toms, the difference to the set-up of a Matched-Grip drummer may not be that big – but it can be decisive and offer you a much easier playing experience!
By the way: if a hit on a tom is performed as a single accent, for example within a groove, then there is no need to turn your body towards the tom. So also check if you can hit your tom well in this playing situation.
Cymbals on the left side
The differences to the Matched Grip set are more obvious here. While with the Matched Grip you can even reach the cymbals that are clearly hanging to the left relatively cleanly, with the Traditional Grip you will concentrate on the left hand and largely leave the right hand out. Cymbals on the left side will hang much differently if you lay them out on Traditional Grip. Make sure that you reach crash cymbals at a good angle with the drumstick.
For cymbals that hang only slightly to the left of the front rack tom, you can still find a good position with a little trial and error to reach them easily with both left and right hand. This effort is worthwhile as it increases your flexibility when playing.
Open Handed
In principle, you are guided by a setup that is designed for Matched Grip. However, there is one spot that requires special attention:
The Hi-Hat.
Since playing crosswise loses its significance, you can now position the hi-hat lower! This helps you to adopt a more relaxed posture with the left stick, as you don’t have to raise your arm to a higher position.
However, avoid positioning the hi-hat too low!
Firstly, cross-play is sometimes necessary even with Open Handed – and you don’t want to completely spoil that.
Secondly, you must be able to reach both the bow of the top cymbal and the edge with the left stick without difficulty. The lower the hi-hat, the more difficult it is to reach the edge.
SUMMARY
There is no “one” stick grip and the stick grip itself is not decisive for your playing quality. However, you will be doing yourself a big favor if you align your set up optimally with your stick grip.
Go for it and enjoy a more relaxed playing experience with more spot landings on the instruments!