I agree with you in so many ways and a good drummer should have the ability to play a wide variety of styles, not just one. I remember that Buddy Rich took offense to being called a jazz drummer. He said “There is no such thing as a jazz drummer. If you can play you can play anything”. I still however believe that the way you grip the sticks has nothing to do with how well you can play.

I am now 50 and I too enjoy good jazz over about anything else, especially Stan Kenton and Dave Brubeck. These folks liked complex music and different time signatures and so do I. To this day I have never heard a single song from these guys or any jazz standard that I could not duplicate with match grip. Sometimes the older we get the more resistant to change we are, and sometimes we refuse to question why we do things the way we do. I think traditional grip falls into that category and always has.

There is simply no physical reason that match grip cannot do everything traditional grip can do. If my right hand can do a single stroke roll, double stroke roll, paradiddle or any other rudiment match grip style why cant my left hand do it the same way? It can of course, and I think people just tend to prefer to use the style they originally learned. When I was in the Army it was clear that the M-16 was in every way superior to the M-1 carbine but you would not believe the old timers who would insist that they preferred the carbine.

Remember that in Buddy’s time everyone played traditional grip, yet no one but he ever rose to the level of his playing. There was much more to the genius of Buddy Rich than the way he held the sticks. I learned traditional grip from an excellent jazz teacher but abandoned it in early adulthood after researching its origins and questioning its advantages. No one has ever been able to show me a thing that the left hand can do traditional grip that I cannot do match grip. I have never gone back and do not regret the decision.

You spoke of the ability to play many different styles and beats and I could not agree more. Solos, speed and power have their place but they are not everything. I can play multiple styles including swing, jazz, rock, reggae, samba, latin, etc. and in any time signature. I can play loud and powerful when needed as well as soft and subtle. The way I hold the sticks has never held me back from anything.

Take care.

Many in rock music were self taught and therefore did what comes naturally. Those who took lessons were taught traditional methods. It was because they took lessons and sought education in the topic that made them better and more advanced than their self taught counterparts, not the way they held their sticks. As a result drumming divided into two different schools of thought, one feeling that it was superior to the other. To think that great drummers such as Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Louis Bellson and Joe Morello were great because of the way they held their sticks is silly, they would have just as great had they practiced match grip from the beginning. It was their great minds, great creativity and dedication to their art that made them great, not the way they held the sticks.

I was taught by a superb teacher who was a drummer for several big acts in the 70s and 80s. He taught me traditional grip and I played this way for many years despite the fact that it never felt right to me and I did much better with match grip. One day he saw me playing match grip and said “If match grip feels better to you go ahead and play match grip, it really makes no difference which you use”. He was right. I have never seen a roll, rudiment, trick or technique with traditional grip that could not be duplicated with match grip. If one closes their eyes and listens to a drummer there is no way of telling how they hold the sticks, and this is all that matters.

Whenever possible one should avoid going against nature. Traditional grip is not natural and one must fight nature in order to master it. When we grip things we do not do so with our thumb and first two fingers with the palm upward, but with the whole hand palms downwards. Thousands of years of evolution based on success and failure have taught us this. There is nothing about the human body that specifies the left hand will do a better job at drumming if it holds the stick in a traditional manner, while the right will do better if it holds a stick in a different manner. One must teach the hands to do this, and once again you must go against nature.

If a child with no experience picks up a set of sticks how do they hold them? Match grip (nature). If you try and drive a nail with a hammer in the left hand do you hold it match grip style or traditional grip style? Of course you hold it match grip style because your power, hand/eye coordination and ability to keep a good grip are much better match grip style. If you doubt me try and drive a nail traditional grip style. Hold a stick traditional grip style and slowly lower your body weight onto it while holding the tip of the stick against the rim of a drum. Very soon you will no longer be holding the stick. Do the same thing match grip and you will soon be knocking the drum over.

Speed in drumming comes from the result of the lack of wasted motion. When working around the kit with match grip one can cover the same distance with much less motion than traditional grip by bending the wrist at the same time one moves the arm. This cannot be done with traditional grip. Less distance equals greater speed, period.

Let me end by saying that I am not at all opposed to traditional grip. Many great drummers have used it and if it works for you great. But lets drop the concept that traditional grip drummers are smarter, better educated, superior musicians, etc. When I lay down the beat for Take 5 or any other great jazz standard it is my understanding of time signatures, steady time, awareness of other musicians and taste that makes the difference, not the way I hold the sticks. Drumming is 30% physical and 70% mental. Great drummers in history have had great intellects, and that is what made the other 30% great, not their stick holding.

I’m a day away from auditioning for The Ohio State University Marching Band, and I have to say, I couldn’t even imagine trying to play our marching snares matched grip, seeing as we hang our drums on a strap, about the same as what the old colonial folk did

But my comment in terms of the article, I guess, has to do more with college bands and drum corps, but can also be applied to every other type of drumming. A good reason besides tradition itself that groups/drummers use traditional grip comes from the fact that it’s just harder, and to master it is a bigger accomplishment (at least in their minds.) Take DCI for example: if you had two exactly same corps, but one marched their snares w/ traditional and one marched them with matched, which group do you think the judge would give the difficulty points to? So I guess my only reason I can think of is that to master the more difficult grip is more of a feat, a bragging right, which kind of helps the tradition of using traditional grip push itself on and on in the process.