Grip (percussion)

Five beaters in use on a vibraphone

In percussion, grip refers to the manner in which the player holds the percussion mallet or mallets, whether drum sticks or other mallets.

For some instruments, such as triangles and large gongs, only one mallet or beater is normally used, held either in one hand, or in both hands for larger beaters; For others such as snare drums often two beaters are used, one in each hand. More rarely, more than one beater may be held in one hand, for example when four mallets are used on a vibraphone, or when a kit drummer performs a cymbal roll by holding two soft sticks in one hand while keeping a rhythm with the other.

Matched or unmatched

Traditional grip (for a right-handed drummer)

Traditional grip (left) and matched grip (right) in use by side drummers

Matched grip in use by a timpanist

When two identical beaters are used, one in each hand, there are two main varieties of grip:

• Unmatched grips, known as traditional grips because of their association with traditional snare drum and drum kit playing, in which the right and left hands grip the beaters in different ways, often one underhand and one overhand.
• Matched grips in which the hands hold the beaters in similar but mirror image fashion.

Traditional grip

Traditional grip was developed to conveniently play a snare drum while marching, and was documented and popularised by Sanford A. Moeller in The Art of Snare Drumming (1925). It was the standard grip for kit drummers in the first half of the twentieth century and remains popular, and the standard grip for most snare drummers.

Matched grip

Matched grip is used for most percussion instruments when two beaters are used.

There are three main varieties, distinguished by the means of moving the beaters and the angle of the palms to facilitate this action:

• French grip, in which the beaters are moved mainly by the fingers.
• German grip, in which the beaters are moved mainly by the wrists.
• American grip, partway between French and German, using both wrists and fingers.

Usage

Single-beater grips are common for:

• Gongs.
• Triangle.
• Bass drum.

Unmatched grips are common for:

• Snare drum.
• Drum kit.
• Korean janggu drum (using dissimilar beaters).

Matched grips are common for:

• Snare drum.
• Drum kit.
• Glockenspiel, Xylophone and Vibraphone.
• Tenor drum.
• Bass drum.
• Tympani.

See also

• Matched grip.
• Traditional grip.

References

External links