If you’re an aspiring drummer, you probably know how important it is to hold the drum sticks properly.

Many drummers don’t realize how significant this is and this eventually hinders their learning curve. Learning the right technique will allow you to get the maximum bounce from your sticks and improve your skills.

Here’s a complete guide on the different styles you can use to hold your drumsticks:

Using the Matched Grip:

This is the more common style of holding the sticks. As the name suggests, in the matched grip style, both your hands hold the sticks in the same way.

There are three ways that can be used with matched grip; allow us to elaborate:

German Grip: in this position, you hold the sticks at their balance point, with your palms facing downwards, allowing the wrists to drive the movement. This grip is made unique by the angle in which it allows you to play the sticks—at 90 degrees from the drums, causing your elbows to stick out.

American Grip: more common among the matched grip styles, the American grip is only different from the German grip in the angle in which it is played. Instead of placing the sticks at a 90 degrees angle, you use a 45 degrees angle in which you let your arms fall and the elbows don’t stick out.

French grip: this style is completely different from the German and American grip. The French grip involves letting your arms fall further down and the fulcrum point changes to somewhere between your thumb and index finger. The way you hold the sticks changed from palm down to palm up, allowing for greater finger control. Although you can get more speed out of your fingers, the French grip compromises on power from the strokes.

Traditional Grip

A more common choice for jazz drumming and corps drumming; in this technique you balance the sticks in the pocket between your thumb and index finger, let them rest on the last two fingers and then place the index and middle finger on top of the sticks. This grip was created by army drummers who had their drums slung to their sides, making it difficult to hold the sticks in matched grip.

The traditional grip is more suited for softer music styles because it limits the power you can get out of the strokes.

Learning to hold the sticks in both ways will not only improve your confidence while drumming and enhance your control over the set, it will also enable you to deliver more versatile beats!

Music jotter is easy music composition and notation software that’ll help you create even better music. You can purchase your software online or if you’d like to try it out first, download our free demo.