Lately I’ve been listening to lots of interviews with professional drummers. It’s interesting to me that the issue of matched verses traditional grip still keeps coming up after all these years. When most people talk about grips for drumming, it’s almost always an either/or choice. They seem to feel that you simply have to choose one grip or the other, because either it takes too much time to learn both grips, or maybe because it takes too much time to maintain both grips.
First of all, I’d like to point out the fact that I don’t feel that beginning players should learn multiple grips. The goal in the beginning is to be able to groove and function in a band with other musicians as quick as possible. The fastest route to this path is to be able to play well with one grip. The easiest and most versatile grip is the matched or German grip. You can easily play single, double and multiple bounce rolls with this grip. It’s also a good functional grip for any style of music on the drum-set. In addition, it’s used a lot on the mallet instruments. Therefore it’s usually important for all percussion students to learn the matched grip.
So why would we want to learn multiple grips? There are a couple of reasons.
- The first reason is that some things are easier to play using different grips. For instance, when you hear drummers like Louie Bellson and Tony Williams playing extremely fast bursts of notes on the ride cymbal, they’re actually using the French grip, as opposed to the German matched grip. It’s very difficult if not impossible to play some of these figures with the German grip, which is the grip that most players are most familiar with. These same type of figures can also be used in musical styles other than jazz, as many drummers have demonstrated in the past. So learning the French grip expands your vocabulary on the drum-set.
You have a left and a right, let those hands have a conversation, instead of both hands saying the same thing – Tony Williams
Traditional grip makes it easier to play with more finesse. This is especially true in straight-ahead, acoustic jazz drumming. While it’s possible to play subtle left hand comping figures with the matched grip, it tends to sound kind of heavy handed, like a gorilla trying to play jazz. For this reason, drummers like Jeff Watts comp using traditional grip even though they use matched grip for everything else on the drum-set. They just switch to matched grip when they want to solo.
Playing with brushes is also more comfortable with traditional grip, because most brush work developed through drummers who were using traditional grip. It’s therefore easier to play certain brush beats with traditional grip.
The same arguments can be made for the matched grip. If you’re playing in a rock band, or other situation where you need a lot of volume, it’s easier to play using the matched grip. It’s easier to play loud back beats and rim shots with the matched grip. It’s also easier to play faster figures around the kit with the matched grip than it is with the traditional grip.
In addition, drummers like Billy Cobham made extensive use of the French grip, because they felt it was easier to play fast single strokes easier with the French grip than with the traditional or German grip.
Many of the great drummers were capable of multiple grips and used them as necessary. When Tony Williams was playing with Miles Davis, he used traditional grip, because it worked well for that particular music. When he formed his fusion band, he played matched grip because he needed to be able to play louder. Other drummers that switched back and forth included Louie Bellson, Buddy Rich, Max Roach, and Joe Morello.
- The second reason for learning multiple grips is that some drummers and percussionists simply have to do this to accomplish their goals. If your high school or college drumline plays traditional grip, you have to be able to play that way or you’re not going to play snare drum on the drumline. Some of the special military bands also require you to play traditional grip. So do a lot of the DCI groups.
- The first reason is that some things are easier to play using different grips. For instance, when you hear drummers like Louie Bellson and Tony Williams playing extremely fast bursts of notes on the ride cymbal, they’re actually using the French grip, as opposed to the German matched grip. It’s very difficult if not impossible to play some of these figures with the German grip, which is the grip that most players are most familiar with. These same type of figures can also be used in musical styles other than jazz, as many drummers have demonstrated in the past. So learning the French grip expands your vocabulary on the drum-set.
To me, there is no reason not to learn and use multiple grips for the drums. You really don’t know for sure whether there’s an advantage for you to using a different grip until you learn it yourself, and try it in different playing situations.
Once you learn the grips, you’ll find they are very easy to maintain if you just use them often, by switching back and forth in your playing and practicing. You can still have one grip as your forte, and use the other grip as needed. This simply makes you a more versatile player.
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