Traditional Grip
Catagory: history
The Tradition of Traditional Grip
Traditional grip is the oldest method of holding sticks for moving percussionists. How did it get started? Why are we using it today? Why do some percussionists hate the grip? We hope to answer these questions and more in this edition of history @ edrumline.com.
Historically Speaking:
The Beginnings
Traditional grip is a lot older than you might think. The technique
we use today has a family tree going back more than 500 years! The early traditional grip is attributed to the medieval pipe and tabor (drum) players (c.1300-1500) of Europe. The tabor, which was suspended from a rope, would hang at the musicians side. Because the batter head would be positioned at an angle, it became necessary to hold the left stick in an underhand fashion.
The Military Era
When military’s began to include drums in their arsenal, drummers would simply tie a strap around a tension rope – or – in more modern times a tension rod. The rope sling was then hung over the shoulder (the invention of a modern harness was still a long way off). The result of this rope sling was a drum that would hang on the drummers left side with the batter head resting at a 45° angle. As you can imagine, using the matched grip technique became very difficult and exhausting. By moving the left hand stick grip to the underhand traditional grip, it became comfortable to play the suspended drum.
Traditional Grip Meets Drum Corps/Marching Band
It wasn’t until the advent of the modern harness, which allowed a marching drummer to carry his drums with a flat playing surface, that matched grip gained any momentum in the activity. It should be mentioned that there were attempts at making drums level before the modern harness. One such device was the Angle Reduction Bar. Another was the vertical drum holder (glorified belt mount).
As much as drumliners love the latest and greatest, we still hold onto our history. Many of our traditions and customs come from the military bands of the past. Traditional grip is one of these customs. It is a small piece of drumming that connects us to the drummers of the American Revolution, the drummer boys of the Civil War, and yes, even the drum corps we admired as children. Traditional grip is historically important and because of that it has been preserved.
Opposition to The Grip
I hate traditional grip—no educational value except that it’s fun and looks cool. – anonymous
There are percussionists in our community who would love to see an end to traditional grip. In fact, during the late 70’s and early 80’s, many in our community predicted, and hoped for, a traditional grip extinction.
Why Such distain For The Grip?
There are several arguments used, some valid and some not. Here are a few of the more popular.
- Muscle Use: Traditional grip (left hand) uses only four muscles to move the stick (two down, two up) while the right hand is using nine! (four down, five up). Less muscles means less control.
- Sound Quality: Because of the discrepancies in muscle use, it is very difficult to achieve an identical sound from both sticks. Use of a matching grip in both hands eliminates the sound differences.
- Practicality and Application: Traditional grip is only useful on the marching snare drum. A drummer who learns only the traditional grip is unnecessarily limited by the grip. The student of traditional grip only will eventually have to learn matched grip to play other percussion instruments such as tympani. A matched grip can be used on virtually all percussion instruments.
- Difficulty of Learning: Traditional grip is difficult to master. Students of percussion could advance faster if they began their studies with matched grip.
Traditional is Good
There are merits to the grip beyond historical preservation. After scoffing at traditional grip, Barry Larkin, the principal percussionist for the Des Moines Symphony, wrote this of his decision to learn tradition grip:
- “Time [I] spent strengthening my left hand for traditional work spilled over into all aspects of my technique. Tambourine rolls are quickly improved if you use your left hand as I do and my one-handed marimba rolls have gone through a developmental revolution.”
As drumliners, traditional grip is a part of our rhythmic soul. Our drums may not hang from slings, but our connection to the drummers of years gone by is here to stay. Traditional grip is a gentle reminder of our drumming ancestors who paved the path to greatness.
For jazz drummers, getting each hand to sound the same is a false choice. I don’t want each hand to sound the same! That’s why different sticking have different phrasing. I can play RLRL or I can play LLLL – they have different sounds to me, they create different melodies. I do try to practice for each hand to sound the same – but in the end, the choice of sticking for a jazz drummer is really a choice of phrasing. Trad grip gives me that phrasing.
From Rick Frank on Apr 4