The Traditional Grip

A Brief History

I wanted to take a look at the traditional grip for Snare Drummers.  This style originates from a time period when all the drums were worn with slings and thus gets the name Traditional because it was traditionally how drummers played. Because the drums were tilted from the sling, in order to play without an awkward elbow position your left (or right, if the drum was on that side) hand you’d need to hold the sticks different than the match grip.

Marching percussion and the snare drum specifically continue to use this grip on their left hand.  It takes more work to get the same sound quality and stamina as the right hand because of the different motion and different muscles involved.

How To

The way I like to teach my students first learning this grip (and even some students new to me) is the following:

• First, start with your arm at your side and your hand relaxed, no stick yet.
  
• Raise your arm by bending your elbow and keep your hand relaxed.  The natural curve of the fingers is important. 

• With your right hand place the stick in between your thumb and forefinger and use your thumb to hold it in place.  The amount of stick behind the hand will differ slightly player to player but on average 4 to 5 inches is right.
  
• Now keep the natural curl of your fingers and let the stick rest on the ring finger, near the nail/cuticle line.
  
• The index finger and the thumb connect and almost have a straight line (depends on size of hands) but the thumb stays straight. It doesn’t bend down to meet the index finger. That will create tension that isn’t needed.  
• The middle finger will gently rest a little above the stick next to the index finger and the pinky stays curled with the ring finger. Your hand should have a nice curved look to it and the tension should be negligible. We are going for a natural look/feel so that we can maximize wrist turn and keep our movement while playing natural as well.
  

Playing Position

• When your sticks are out in playing position there should not be a straight line down your arm and the back of your hand nor down your arm and through your thumb.  To be natural you’ll need to visually split the difference.  One way to see this is to take the other stick and place it on top of your arm running down the length of your arm.
  
• Your sticks won’t make a perfect triangle when in the playing position without creating tension or shifting your wrists out of a natural set.  The left hand will have an angle closer to 90 degrees from your arm compared to your right hand. 
• We do want to blend them together so don’t make them look like this.  You can see the kink in my wrist as it's bending back to match the angle of the right hand.
  

Motion

The easiest explanation of the motion is that it’s like opening a door.  You turn your wrist counter-clockwise to “lift” the stick and clockwise to hit the drum.

As you can see rotating without the momentum of the stick generally won't let your wrist turn to the 'full' or 12" height. Stretching and practice will help increase this range of motion.

A mirror will be key here as you don’t want to develop a slice or a weird lifting motion. Start slowly to get the feel of what it is like and then speed up with 8’s.  When lifting for the initial stroke the ring finger helps guide the stick upwards but in order to maintain a relaxed, natural approach along with good sound quality when play 8’s don’t squeeze the stick between the thumb/forefinger and the ring finger throughout the motion.  Think of the rotation like bouncing a basketball. You push the stick down and let the rebound help bring it back up with minimal use from the ring finger. This will take a lot of practice to perfect. 

We’ll touch on the Traditional Grip again soon and cover more intermediate and advanced ideas with this grip.  For now go out and start working on the grip itself and the rebound... and remember - rotation is key!

~B5

EDIT:  I made a video to go along with the article that explains the technique and also quickly answers one of the questions we received about backsticking.  Enjoy!

Comments

[Christopher]

I love the new ergonomic approach you guys are putting out there, but I have questions about the movement. I completely agree with momentum affecting/assisting stick height, but as the height increases, how should the wrist/forearm/elbow react? For instance: if I'm playing a solid 12", should my wrist be turning out at full extension? Should my forearm be leaving the plane it was on at rest? Should my elbow be rocking in toward my body? Also, what about vertical wrist movement or horizontal elbow movement in relation to any other height? At what point do you compromise comfort/relaxation to match the heights of those on either side of you? If I recall, you're about 5'9" and I am 6'7"- at least when we marched together; how do you relate height and a relaxed approach to movement or drum height?
Back to movement pertaining to a relaxed approach; how would one approach a back-stick, drum to drum or playing molar? And this is all just the left hand. I'd love to get your take on the right hand.

[Mike]

First let me say that yes, you were a beast. And while that made for drum height issues, the approach to the left hand should still be uniform. Let me explain...

As far as the arm movement, without actually activating the biceps or shoulder muscles to lift the arm, the motion of the forearm raising and breaking the plane is ok. When rotating to initiate and then to continue the stroke you are definitely using muscles, but you shouldn't feel like you have to force anything. At least not after you've been playing for a while. The arm will naturally move and in doing so the elbow will rock (both right and left hands) and the forearm will lift a bit.

Regarding the compromise of technique for looks - that's difficult. I strive to enforce some rules that keep the technique uniform and to keep it from looking sloppy (that will be a separate article). I personally don't think the technique should ever be compromised because changing to play too low or too high will add tension, and tension will lead to injury. Some of my friends in the Functional Movement Screening world would say the same thing, and that's just for the body in general! So with regards to the height disparity, that will have to be reviewed case by case.

Backsticking, since it is for flair should be done as the instructors require it. Personally I like to try and keep within the plane of playing. Straight up and over to keep the action looking good and smooth is how I teach it. Obviously speed of the musical passage will determine if there is some 'cheating' that needs to happen for the angle of the backstick. I let my elbow kick out so that my hand/wrist don't have to move as much and my arm also raises up a little bit and locks into a new playing position for repeated backsticks.

The Moeller technique or method is based on a whip like motion to increase speed and decrease injury. At least that's what one practitioner preaches. I think that it fits within the relaxed style I teach, but doesn't dominate the style. This one is harder to explain as I feel it changes per requirements of the music, but I'll try and touch back on this in future Traditional articles!

Thanks for the questions Chris!!! I'm going to try to put together a video that answers these questions too. Then you can have a visual reference to these answers.!

[Christopher]

Great feedback- and I'm still a beast, don't deny it.

So, I know that there are two "styles" for playing Moeller technique: lead with the wrist, and leading with the bead on the way up. I have always leaned toward leading with the bead on the way up so that the momentum of the stick is not compromised by "flash". Can you touch on both styles when you do the video? I am not as stubborn as I once was and can accept and alter my teaching/playing if there is evidence to prove that I should.

I am glad to see that movement is okay. So many players and teachers (myself included at times) get caught up in keeping a rigid core while trying to relax the hands and it just doesn't work that way. You know what I would love to see, you're style of putting "meat" on the stick and playing solid notes while maintaining as relaxed of posture as possible. Any chance of an article on playing strong and confident?

[Mike]

Perhaps you can clarify more what you mean by "meat" on the stick and how that would impact playing confidently? I see having a strong and confident approach to be independent of the amount of hand that is on the stick, personally. I do think that is a great article idea though. Consider it added to the list!

I can definitely put something together about the wrist first vs bead first approach to lifting and attacking. I too prefer the bead first approach day to day, but sometimes a little old school whip is fun! I'll see what I can do by this weekend.

[Christopher]

Good catch- and poor wording on my behalf. My reference to "meat" on the stick was meant to emphasize playing through the head. Basically the difference of a firm (but relaxed) grip on the stick and aiming for a surface that is 1-2" beneath the head of the drum to maximize velocity and rebound, as well as giving the tone quality a boost. I am finding it rather difficult to explain on the web here, so I hope that you have more insight with verbiage and maybe some video.

I have taught many students who have a timid approach and trying to get them to come out of their shell can be very difficult. I've gone as far as actually making them dribble a basketball to emphasize the velocity required for a full rebound.

[Mike]

I think you're looking at Sound Quality, and for rolls specifically I'd recommend checking out this article.

As far as playing through the head and other methods of touch and the impact on sound quality I think that's a whole new topic. As you well know, and can see, these items can become very complex because like a spider's web almost all aspects of drumming touch on one another!

Thinking on it, I don't really teach the method of "aiming below the head of the drum" unless it's a very new/green/young person. Normally the basketball analogy gets the point across for rebound. Also it can be detrimental to the quality of sound if they are hitting the drum too hard. Thus I reserve that thought and method for the very new! I've found that the tone gets more of a boost with a lighter grip on the stick as then the players hand doesn't deaden the vibrations of the drum or the stick. Does that clear some items up?

Now I have 2 new articles to write up!

[Christopher]

Yes- that is what I was looking for. And hey, I've gotta keep you on your toes, right?

[Christopher]

Hey Mike-
Do you mind if I quote you on part of the "Playing Position" section for a tech packet I'm helping to write? I can't think of any better way to describe how the left hand should be than how you phrased it.

[Mike]

Sure, so long as you throw credit where credit is due feel free to quote us!

Thanks Chris!

~B5