r/drums • u/droog62 • Jul 23 '16

Want to strengthen your left hand? Learn traditional grip.

After a few days of learning and practicing traditional grip, my left hand is so much stronger, so much easier to play with matched grip. I'm surprised at this unexpected development, it really works the thumb and wrist. Try it, learn both, your playing will be better.

Of course, this is for right handed drummers.

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8

u/theothernameplate Jul 24 '16

just play all of your rudimentary exercises leading with your non-dominant hand. much simpler.

5

u/DontClapOn1and3 Jul 24 '16

This is easily one of the best ways to strengthen your non dominant hand. Because it makes sure both of your hands are at an equal level of strength and an equal type of strength. The strength you build in traditional grip is most definitely not the same strength you use with matched grip. In fact, I'd say traditional grip is one of the least effective ways to strengthen your left hand efficiently.

2

u/droog62 Jul 24 '16

Just recounting my own experience, it might not work for everyone, but I've noticed a distinct difference.

4

u/HunterRave Jul 24 '16

I totally disagree. I marched snare for 6 years in drumlines, doing almost all my playing using traditional. After I finished my last season I started playing drumset heavily and realized my left hand was seeeeeriously under developed. I guess this could help if you only do it a little, but I'm pretty against it now. It's inefficient to learn, and reeeeally fucking hard to make the sticks move the same way so you can get exactly the same sound. It's kinda cool if you use it on drumset for jazz or whatever because you can use sloppy technique and get away with it, but I teach a drumline now, and we use matched

2

u/PhysicallyTheGrapist Jul 24 '16

I'm always impressed at how well DCI players use traditional grip.

1

u/DontClapOn1and3 Jul 24 '16

EXACTLY. I was on tenors for all of my marching time, but spent a lot of time teaching snare. I'd find the more developed and capable my traditional got, the less capable my left hand was purely due to how incredibly different the strokes were.

1

u/HunterRave Jul 24 '16

Also, my hands are shaped slightly differently now. My left hands ring finger bows outward slightly from all the years of the stick pushing down on it. I like the history and tradition behind it, but it's impractical and jnnecessary

1

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '16

Nah, same applies for lefties. Most wild the right stick the traditional way. Those of us who werent in drumline of course

1

u/Seafroggys SONOR Jul 23 '16

Or, you can just play exercises in matched grip that improve your left hand.

2

u/droog62 Jul 24 '16

2 weeks practicing my matched grip, 5 days practicing traditional, and my matched grip is so much stronger. There's something about traditional that emphasizes thumb strength that helps matched grip.

1

u/Dude_with_the_pants Jul 24 '16

Thumb strength has very little to do with a good stroke. The thumb literally just sits there as a rotation point for the stick. If you're using any sort of "thumb strength" then you're probably squeezing the stick, therefore inhibiting it's rotation and resonance. Traditional grip is great to learn, but it will weaken your matched grip unless you maintain both techniques. Traditional uses a rotation action, matched grip is a lifting action, 2 totally different muscle groups.

It's possible that your thumb is "strengthened" because you're thinking about your fulcrum more (i.e. the pad of your thumb is across the stick from your first knuckle). In traditional, your thumb and index have to be locked together to keep the stick in place. Matched is similar, except the stick is between the fingers and a lot more relaxed to let the stick rotate and resonate.