iwearnohats
Silver Member
It's interesting hearing all these recent accounts of people switching grips due to focal dystonia.
I too recently changed my grip, although I don't know if it's due to any form of dystonia, it's because after spending about 6 months trying to redevelop, correct, and relax my left-hand grip (trying to develop American and French hand positions and finger control), I basically kept hitting a brick wall. I ended up switching to traditional grip when I was playing on the kit so I could still play along to music and such as I didn't want to disrupt the technique work.
In the end, I made the decision to switch entirely back to traditional grip. I found it came back to me very quickly (I switched to trad first when I was around 18 after I'd only been playing for three years, due to having trouble relaxing and playing correctly with my left hand). I originally played traditional for about 6 years before I ultimately changed back to matched grip, which I'm very thankful for as it's come back to me quickly. I had developed quite a lot of power (I used to watch Virgil Donati play quite a lot and watched how he did things).
Anyway, as someone who would also say that there are no practical benefits to playing with traditional grip, due to my circumstances I am quite enjoying playing the grip again, and developing it, I feel more relaxed than I ever did with matched grip, and it looks a LOT cooler
.
If you want to get a bit more advice on developing the correct wrist motion, there are a couple of videos out there by Seth Davis and Derrick Pope which show the correct wrist motion. The correct finger usage will change depending on who you talk to, but ultimately just do what feels comfortable for you. And don't be afraid to work on thumb + wrist control only (with the fingers away from the stick and the thumb). Some people will say that you must always have the index finger touching the thumb, and that is how I originally learned the grip, but I would say now that don't be afraid to experiment and work the grip from every angle - just make sure you stay relaxed!
And on that note, please enjoy watching Nick Pierce playing metal (blast beats included!) with traditional grip:
I too recently changed my grip, although I don't know if it's due to any form of dystonia, it's because after spending about 6 months trying to redevelop, correct, and relax my left-hand grip (trying to develop American and French hand positions and finger control), I basically kept hitting a brick wall. I ended up switching to traditional grip when I was playing on the kit so I could still play along to music and such as I didn't want to disrupt the technique work.
In the end, I made the decision to switch entirely back to traditional grip. I found it came back to me very quickly (I switched to trad first when I was around 18 after I'd only been playing for three years, due to having trouble relaxing and playing correctly with my left hand). I originally played traditional for about 6 years before I ultimately changed back to matched grip, which I'm very thankful for as it's come back to me quickly. I had developed quite a lot of power (I used to watch Virgil Donati play quite a lot and watched how he did things).
Anyway, as someone who would also say that there are no practical benefits to playing with traditional grip, due to my circumstances I am quite enjoying playing the grip again, and developing it, I feel more relaxed than I ever did with matched grip, and it looks a LOT cooler
If you want to get a bit more advice on developing the correct wrist motion, there are a couple of videos out there by Seth Davis and Derrick Pope which show the correct wrist motion. The correct finger usage will change depending on who you talk to, but ultimately just do what feels comfortable for you. And don't be afraid to work on thumb + wrist control only (with the fingers away from the stick and the thumb). Some people will say that you must always have the index finger touching the thumb, and that is how I originally learned the grip, but I would say now that don't be afraid to experiment and work the grip from every angle - just make sure you stay relaxed!
And on that note, please enjoy watching Nick Pierce playing metal (blast beats included!) with traditional grip: