How do you grip your stick

[Mopzilla]

uh, you know, how do you hold the sticks... loose, tight, all fingers, or 3 fingers? Fall outta your hand?

[gcdrummer]

It totally depends. I mix match and traditional. Most of the time it's with all fingers on the stick. But at times I'll practice by just holding the stick with my ring finger and pinky.

[Ignited]

You seriously have no idea how much I've obsessed over this in the past. I've always been very self-concious about my technique, especially my grip, because I know how much it can affect my playing. It wasn't until fairly recently that I discovered that I play better when I keep a firmer grip and use my wrists to move the stick. Since I've started doing this, my accuracy and consistency has improved considerably.

 

At first it felt really weird and I kept thinking that I was holding the stick too tightly. Once my wrists got used to it, though, it felt totally normal.

[Fr!tz]

I switch off between traditional grip for H/H rolls to match grip when beating the crap outta the toms.

[slambang]

I play traditional unless I'm playing something that is straight ahead 4/4 - and even then sometimes traditional just feels better.

 

I was trained traditionally, but as soon as my teacher would leave, I would go matched and just slam away.

 

Over the last three years or so, I found that I can get a much better feel and speed, especially on the snare drum, with a traditional grip. Double strokes come much easier this way too, I've found.

 

A good resource to check out is Steve Smith's Drum Technique and History of the US Beat. I found it refreshing - even after playing for 20 years.

 

Jai-

[SlikRik]

Wow, thats wierd... I just bought the Steve Smith (used) at G-tar Center of $40. Its amazing. I've been playing 15 years and found it very useful.

 

I'm not good at traditional but can do it some. I practice it very little every day. I'm all but completely self taught- lots of bad habits.

 

I also was obsessed w/ this to some degree. I went and backtracked and really practiced w/ my wrists. Its' really helped. I play w/ a lot of wrist until I'm warmed up, then I find myself holding the stick really lightly.

 

I think that learning traditional is very useful. I just can't seem to figure it out yet.

[SlikRik]

Wow, thats wierd... I just bought the Steve Smith (used) at G-tar Center of $40. Its amazing. I've been playing 15 years and found it very useful.

 

I'm not good at traditional but can do it some. I practice it very little every day. I'm all but completely self taught- lots of bad habits.

 

I also was obsessed w/ this to some degree. I went and backtracked and really practiced w/ my wrists. Its' really helped. I play w/ a lot of wrist until I'm warmed up, then I find myself holding the stick really lightly.

 

I think that learning traditional is very useful. I just can't seem to figure it out yet.

[rockbeat]

Back when I originally started learning to play I used traditional grip, but switched to match after a couple of years or so. It just felt more natural, especially for crashing with the left. Now, whenever I try to play traditional grip my left hand strokes are totally wimpy, and for me at least I feel like I have less stick control with the traditional grip. I think most of the time when I'm playing I hold the sticks between my thumb and the first joint of my index finger.

[Dark Slide]

French.

[Scheming Demon]

I learned traditional grip then switched to matched grip a long time ago.

 

As I understand it there are 3 types of matched grip, French, German and American. French has your thumbs straight up on top of the stick. German has your hands with the thumbs side to side facing each other with the back of your hand facing up, American is in-between the two.

 

I use American with occasional changes to French style. If I hold the sticks too tight than my fingers start to cramp up and I have to loosen my grip.

 

My main grip is between the thumb and first finger, with the next 2 fingers loosely gripped beyond that for extra control. I rarely use the pinkies as part of my grip but occasionally I do notice that I use them for certain parts. My overall grip I would say is moderately tight. If I hold them on the loose side I'll tend to drop them.

 

I believe you should not be consciously aware of your grip while playing until you notice it's either too loose or too tight.