Trad grip: range w/ L hand wrist (up motion)

[Arky]

I was wondering whether trad players feel some discomfort with the left (trad grip) hand on the up motion when turning the wrist up for a full stroke. Is this a typical experience for trad style players? Maybe at least for some period of time when starting with trad grip until getting fully used to this motion?

I like trad grip and practice trad more than matched. Not too long into drumming (1.5 yrs, no teacher - but I think my technique is god) but took up practicing trad almost from the beginning.

I feel comfy with that grip but that left hand full stroke thing is still a bit unclear to me. I noticed it's helping to keep my left elbow close to the body when the full motion with the left hand is needed. For Moeller or accents the elbow wouldn't stay at the body of course. I assume the left elbow has to be brought forward enough to rotate the forearm so the stick would be in 90 degree position/pointing straight up.

Is there anything I'm missing? Will that motion become completely natural with time/more practice? Thanks for your replies.

The tutorials I've been using to learn (not only) trad is JoJo Mayer's DVD on hand technique and Todd Sucherman's "Methods & Mechanics" I & II.

[johanisu]

Yes the full stroke might still be feeling awkward at this point. Ive now been playing 6.5 years and its fully comfortable for me. Though I cant say I use the full stroke motion all that much.

Doesnt sound like you have the moeller motion right. Watch what Mayer does in his DVD again, his elbow moves sideways for the moeller whip motion in his left hand.

[Arky]

johanisu, thank you.

Moeller is no problem (overall). I mentioned Moeller just as an example when the left elbow would not stay in touch with the body.

Ok - more practice will do the trick getting fully comfy with the motion.

[Alex Luce]

I assume the left elbow has to be brought forward enough to rotate the forearm so the stick would be in 90 degree position/pointing straight up.


I think it would be more like a 70 or 80 degree angle for the stick with the full stroke. But of course you can increase the angle to 90 degrees or greater by opening your grip and letting the stick swing back.

One thing you can do when you are practicing your full strokes is bring your elbow in front of your body, so its range of motion is not limited by banging into your torso. (Please forgive me if you are already doing this.) I am not saying you should play this way all the time, but maybe it will help you realize what the stroke is supposed to feel like.

If you are feeling discomfort you definitely need to make some kind of change -- don't just keep practicing the same way to try and "fix it". If you keep having trouble the ultimate fix would be to stick with matched grip. Who knows, it just might suit you better.

Regards,

Alex

[Anthony Amodeo]

I recommend these videos if you play trad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq-fPq3e5q8

[Arky]

Thank you Alex Luce and Gvdadrummasum,
on experimenting a bit more I feel that bringing the elbow forward does the trick.

Hmm, I can't access that video from Germany. I know there are workarounds to watch "closed" videos but haven't looked how this can be done.

I should have said it in my initial post, but ultimately that up motion feeling a bit awkward results in the left stick having a bit less height than the right stick. I've noticed that recently. When I'm trying to copy what Todd is demonstrating on his DVDs I'm amazed by his perfect (and impressive) stick height and I noticed that my left hand is not on par with the right one in this regard. --- Ok, more practice ;-)

[haredrums]

Thank you Alex Luce and Gvdadrummasum,
on experimenting a bit more I feel that bringing the elbow forward does the trick.

Hmm, I can't access that video from Germany. I know there are workarounds to watch "closed" videos but haven't looked how this can be done.

I should have said it in my initial post, but ultimately that up motion feeling a bit awkward results in the left stick having a bit less height than the right stick. I've noticed that recently. When I'm trying to copy what Todd is demonstrating on his DVDs I'm amazed by his perfect (and impressive) stick height and I noticed that my left hand is not on par with the right one in this regard. --- Ok, more practice ;-)

Yeah Arky,

I really think that the problem you are having is totally normal. I see this in my private studio all the time. This is essentially a flexibility issue, and will come naturally to you as you practice over time. I would say don't worry about it too much, and don't hurt yourself!

[crash]

I play traditional grip. There's actually a lot of forearm, and sometimes upper arm movement involved. You can see this in Moeller videos. Be careful you don't use just the fingers, or wrists for playing. I get more power using my forearms, you can get really solid accents this way. One more thing. Don't clamp down on the sticks! Practice playing with no tension.

[Arky]

haredrums and crash,
thank you for your posts! It has gotten much better the recent days. I've been paying attention to getting the left hand stick height up. Don't worry as to tension, I'm quite aware of this. But some people might struggle with this though. And tension might lead to actual physical problems - which I'm trying to avoid of course.

I'm glad that I found the right drummers/tutorials when I picked up playing (rather: practicing) the drums so that tension problem (or: that relaxation is key) is something I'm heeding a lot. It's just an intelligent way of playing.