Matched vs. French grip on ride

daredrummer

Gold Member
For the past 5 years I've always played matched grip on the ride. No one has told me otherwise, my drum teacher has brought it up a few times, but I've never tried switching. I've recently started to trying to learn french grip for the ride. It's hard to control at first, but I'm getting the feel for it, and I think I will probably like it better than matched.

I've seen many drummers do both of them, just personal preference I guess. Which do you use and why?
 
French grip IS matched grip. Matched grip is nothing more than the two hands holding the stick the same way....so that they are matching. As opposed to traditional grip where the hand that plays the snare drum holds the stick through the fingers.

I assume you're talking about German grip vs French grip?
 
French grip IS matched grip. Matched grip is nothing more than the two hands holding the stick the same way....so that they are matching. As opposed to traditional grip where the hand that plays the snare drum holds the stick through the fingers.

I assume you're talking about German grip vs French grip?

I always thought of matched grip using your wrist more than your fingers, with your palm facing down, and your thumb on the side of the stick. And french as using your fingers more, with your palm facing to the side, and your thumb on the top of stick.

Perhaps just different terminology's? Or am I dead wrong? :p
 
Or am I dead wrong? :p

This one....sorry mate. :)

Matched grip refers to a matching grip in each hand. You can play a matched German grip, a matched French grip and a matched American grip (whatever the hell that is anyway).

What you have always thought of as matched grip is actually German grip (palms down, thumb to the side). French grip is as you've stated (palms facing, thumb on top) and American grip is somewhere in between the two.

It's true that French grip does promote use of the fingers, but the fingers certainly come in to play with a German grip too. The ability to roll your wrist between the two is well worth working on IMHO. That way you're covered for any application you need.
 
German grip on the bell - feels less awkward on the wrist, and easier to aim.

French grip for little intricacies and faster parts/rebounds.

German grip for power!
 
Can't improve on Pockets assessment. I will say that, I prefer French grip on my ride, and like Algorithm, German on the bell.
To my ear, when riding, French grip definitely pulls a more sonically satisfying ping out of the cymbal. It's because of the thumb on top as opposed to the side, it makes for a better tone. It's easy to hear the difference, play German on the ride and then play French.
 
I play German grip for sheer rock POWER! I play French grip when I want to get more subtleties and colors out of the ride. Plus, with the French grip, you can also utilize the "click grip" to get a woody/clicky sound out of the ride.

American grip (whatever the hell that is anyway).

It's somewhere between German and French. I call it the "lazy German grip". Not as much control as the German grip, and not as much finesse as the French grip. It's what most of my students come in to their first lesson playing with. It's actually a throw away grip because it works against your physical capacity to play as fast as your body can.
 
I used to play german on the ride until one day I was at a lesson playing some jazz exercise and my (very experienced and respected) drum teacher told me.. "hey.. no, no.. don't do that, you're stressing it and killing your tempo". It's a much more natural movement going from german on hats to french on the ride, than german to german.. I don't know if that makes sense.

The difference in sound is noticeable, as Larry said, and the feel is totally different too.

I still play my hats mostly german-american, and on the ride I may use german for heavier stuff, but I play mostly french these days. It gives more "finesse". haha.

Cheers!
 
I used to play german on the ride until one day I was at a lesson playing some jazz exercise and my (very experienced and respected) drum teacher told me.. "hey.. no, no.. don't do that, you're stressing it and killing your tempo". It's a much more natural movement going from german on hats to french on the ride, than german to german.. I don't know if that makes sense.

The difference in sound is noticeable, as Larry said, and the feel is totally different too.

I still play my hats mostly german-american, and on the ride I may use german for heavier stuff, but I play mostly french these days. It gives more "finesse". haha.

Cheers!

Funny, I am usually the opposite. I like French on the hi hats and German on the ride (unless I am playing Jazz, then I go German on hats and french on ride).

I like to rotate my wrist counterclockwise mostly. rotating clockwise seems awkward to me.
 
I do both. Depends on style, tempo and what exactly it is that I`m playing on the ride.

Many people hold sort of german but use an outward rotating motion as well. Ed Soph comes to mind.
 
Mostly German grip here. French on the ride unless I'm incorporating the bell, in which case my hand rotates to German (or maybe more American on the body hits, and the rotation to German happens as part of the bell hit if that makes sense). This seemed to develop on it's own really, it feels very natural and it seems a lot of the other responses have said similar things.

On the hats I go between French and German depending on what I'm playing. If it's a part where I need to use fingers or it's fast my tendency is to gravitate towards French... whatever feels comfortable really.

Snare with my left hand is German all the time.
 
Thanks for the clarification pocket, I learn something new here every day!

Tried out the French grip with the band today, and I am liking it a lot. Feels better and more relaxed. Also puts less stress on your arm from what I can tell.

Never tried french grip on the hats, think I've seen Benny Greb do that? Doesn't seem quite as natural but I'll have to try it.
 
The difference between French, German + American Grips is simply a matter of elbow rotation. (If you put your palms face up, then turn them face down, you'll notice that the rotation stems from the elbow, not the wrist.)

If you just point at the ride w/ your ride hand, check out what position your arm is naturally in ... now point at the hi hats w/ the same hand. The right arm is naturally on the side on the ride side and palm on top om the left. The reverse is true for the left hand. Across the body = palm on top, on the same side = palm on side. The stuff in the middle is somewhere in between.

'German' grip on the bell works well for me because it makes it easier to hit the bell accurately because at that position German grip swings at an angle, and that provides a larger surface area.
 
Can't improve on Pockets assessment. I will say that, I prefer French grip on my ride, and like Algorithm, German on the bell.
To my ear, when riding, French grip definitely pulls a more sonically satisfying ping out of the cymbal. It's because of the thumb on top as opposed to the side, it makes for a better tone. It's easy to hear the difference, play German on the ride and then play French.

This is a key point in this question: SOUND!

A largely palms down (German, American, I don't care what you call it!) grip gives a darker sound. I think this is a function of the weight of the hand being above the stick and deadening the stick a little on impact. The French grip allows the stick to resonate a little more freely and the access to thumb and fingers allows for a little bit of snap at the end of the stroke to really pull a nice attack out of the cymbal. The motion is a bit like rolling money between your thumb and index finger.

Timpanists also debate the merits of these two grips for sound all the time. Comfort and mechanics are a huge thing. Sound is another key consideration.
 
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