The Not So Secret, Secret Drum Grip
Most of the students I’ve had in the past few years and many other working drummers have asked me about the ‘back of the hand’ grip used by many drummers, myself included. It’s noticeable when I play that my index finger is never gripping the stick in my left hand and some of the time not in my right. It’s a nuanced topic but I’d like to take the time to lay it out here as I currently see it in the hope that it helps others of all levels. The topic crosses over into how strokes are generated, how techniques scale and change and ultimately how music is made, so there’s no way I can fully explore everything here but hopefully it’ll give those of you that are intrigued enough the confidence to dive in.
First, I want to share with you a little of my journey, which will perhaps help you understand why I’ve arrived at where I am currently at. My grip has changed over the years as a result of the music I’ve played and how I wanted to sound behind the drums. I initially learnt to play in acoustic music settings and like many drummers, I was holding the sticks generally with the front of the hand between the thumb and index finger generally speaking. When I had a louder gig, I tended to just lift my arm up more and create more tension in my grip and basically hope for the best. In my early 20’s, I began to play louder music on bigger drums regularly on tours. The music often included electric guitars and synths and I’d often be playing outdoor festival stages, sometimes using in-ear monitors, having rehearsals, soundchecks and long gigs for consecutive nights at high volume levels. I was also doing recording sessions that often required bigger drum sounds and a greater level of control over my sound and feel. I discovered quickly that it was a huge amount of effort to generate the power I needed and I’d still fall short with endurance, sound and feel, not to mention I started to get a few mild physical issues as a result of how I was playing. Something needed to change if playing was going to be satisfying musically and sustainable physically. My goal was that I wanted to hear myself as I was playing or on a recording and be able to think that what I was doing was at a high standard, regardless of the type of music or how good or bad a day I was having. And I wanted to be able to play like that with a certain amount of ease and therefore sustainability. So far, it’s been a journey and through study and practise, I’ve reached a point where I no longer have to think about that side of playing when I get on stage and I can let go of the larger concerns I had about the connection with my instrument.
When I first started to think seriously about the sound I was making on the drums, many people gave me the impression that you needed to be a larger person in order to get a larger sound. Then I looked around and discovered plenty of players that were slimmer getting large sounds. The first key for me was studying the legendary Tony Williams, who, like many drummers, I’d loved since I was first learning. He was shorter than I am and at least as slender during his younger decades and yet he managed to get a big, powerful and focussed sound with an incredible dynamic range. I began to study how he generated the strokes. He explained in his famous Zildjian day clinic in 1985 that he predominantly used the back of the hand, which is very different to how many of us start. Tony’s grip (which came from Max Roach among others) was extremely influential on the subsequent generations of high-level drummers of all styles. Keep an eye out for it. Once you see it, you can’t un-see it. It’s everywhere, in one form or another, amongst professional drummers. This part of Tony’s clinic, while brilliant, is slightly misleading I believe. He says it’s a simple matter of holding the stick using the back two fingers and lifting the hand, not relying on bounce. In practise however, there’s more to it. I believe he was boiling his concept down to make it easier to understand to those of us who had predominantly used the front of the hand and were perhaps curious. If that was the case, it worked with me because I was curious.
The technique as he explains it is a great way into his single stroke technique. He’s holding the sticks with the back two fingers and lifting the hand. When playing double strokes however, he uses more bounce and crucially the drop-catch technique, not just on the ride but on the drums too. During the drop motion, when the fingers unclench from the palm, the stick is almost stuck to them, maintaining contact with them and being guided by them all the way through both the drop and the catch. This way, he keeps as much control as possible despite the fulcrum shifting from the back two fingers to the middle finger. It does seem clear from video footage that he often uses a middle finger fulcrum while playing double strokes. In fact, the first time he plays in the ’85 clinic video he plays a long double stroke roll. You can notice that with doubles in the right hand, he’s not ‘holding the sticks very firmly…with his back two fingers’ as he articulates, but using the bounce through the middle finger fulcrum whilst maintaining as much contact as possible with his back two fingers. This means that when he plays a rudiment or phrase of some kind that calls for both singles and doubles, he is essentially swapping between fulcrums seamlessly. I would argue that his technical philosophy has come from developing what he has decided is the strongest version of a single stroke and the strongest version of a double stroke, then combining them. The double stroke as I’d define it, is not two single strokes, nor is it a more open version of a closed roll (buzz roll). Rather, it’s a fully defined singular motion that produces two notes.
As a drumming public service announcement, there are so many players and teachers on the internet teaching Tony’s grip, his 5-note ride cymbal beat and so many other elements of his playing. Tread cautiously. He’s a wonderfully idiosyncratic player and while I don’t claim to be a guru able to sound just like him, I’ve gone far enough into the fundamentals of his playing to recognise when somebody hasn’t. There is, of course, some great Tony related content online and I mention this not coming from a place of wanting to be down on others sharing their own journey/knowledge/enthusiasm for somebody’s playing, but from a place of wanting to help other drummers get closer to the truth of what’s going on, and thereby helping them build a framework that is strong and their own.
After Tony Williams, I looked at a whole slew of drummers who seemed to hold the sticks in a similar way: Dennis Chambers, Chris Dave, Jeff Ballard, Marcus Gilmore, Gary Husband, Josh Jones to name a few. None of these great drummers generate the strokes in quite the same way as another, but there is a common thread that runs through, which is a grip that sits further back in the hand for a least one of their hands for at least the single strokes. Some of these drummers have managed to figu re out how to play double strokes still gripping further back in the hand. Others have got around the problem of doubles using wrist movements while still maintaining a back of hand grip, essentially playing two singles. Others use a drop catch technique with a middle or index finger fulcrum for doubles. I was particularly interested by those who could make a clear double stroke maintaining the grip further back in the hand.
Years of studying others coupled with trial and error in the practise room has led me to this: A grip that centres around the stick being held with the ring and middle finger for both singles and doubles. I’ve found that personally the Tony way (holding with the back two) isn’t as effective for me. I find the little finger both slow and weak and it’s best served when it supports the other fingers, rather than gripping the stick fully. For double strokes, as well as this grip, I also switch into the drop catch technique, with middle finger fulcrum in the left hand and somewhere between middle finger and index finger in the right hand. The advantage to the drop catch double over the ring/middle finger fulcrum double is it’s easier to develop the ability to play fast and loud. The advantage to the ring/middle finger doubles is the clarity of notes, the thickness and focus of tone and the precision of rhythm. This is why developing both of these double stroke techniques and being able to switch between them smoothly without thinking is proving incredibly useful. The singles are a little more straightforward. I hold the stick with the ring and middle finger. There is lots to talk about in terms of how the fingers work in harmony with the wrists (and sometimes forearms) for each stroke, but I want to keep it simple enough for now and encourage you to experiment for yourself. Keep in mind that in order to see these techniques scale in any kind of useful way, you’ll need to build strength and muscle memory which will only come if you commit to the journey. If you need some inspiration and incentive to form the belief that this type of grip is worth developing, just listen to the drummers I listed earlier or many others who use elements of it.
The advantages you can gain are:
- Control - This helps timing and feel.
- Clarity - Each note starts to have its own separate voice, rather than sounding like a mush of notes.
- Sound - Your sound becomes focussed and thicker.
- Dynamics - The ability to play with an increasingly large dynamic range.
- Ease – The ability to play with relaxation as it becomes much easier to play each note and easier to play loud and soft; You don’t have to ‘make it happen’ nearly as much.
A broader point I’d like to make is that I don’t believe we should talk about technique like it’s a cold and completely detachable part of music. While I do subscribe to the idea that you can learn how to play fast and loud without having any musicality, to belittle development of facility when it is linked to the goal of playing more beautifully is short-sighted. I’ve found that that opinion is most commonly linked to an insecurity or lack of knowledge. I think we should consider technique as something that helps facilitate a greater level of beauty and self-knowledge, whatever beauty and self-knowledge is to you. As one of my teachers, Dave Wickins once said to me, ‘It takes all your technique to play the simplest thing’. What I’ve taken from that statement is: How you play is heard in everything you play, regardless of what it is that you choose to play.