Hi everyone.

I bought a cheap second hand drumkit last year & Ive been teaching myself through internet lessons, the advice of friends who are drummers & by observing my favourite drummers in bands.

Ive got to the point now where I can play some grooves, write my own beats & play some fairly basic fills. Since I started becoming serious about drumming, Ive been fascinated by traditional grip, & tried to bring it into my playing style.

now, having trawled the internet for various lessons Im convinced Im holding the left stick correctly for traditional grip, but Im having real problems actually using it.

I find it hard to play fast rolls with it, because I cant seem to dupilcate the fingersnapping I use on my right hand. Also, the only way Ive found I can buzz the stick with traditional grip is by completely removing my index & middle fingers from their positions on top of the stick. Ive never seen someone who actually knows how to use the grip doing this, apparently the correct technique is to always have your thumb touching the side of your index finger.

Ive heard that the basic traditional stick stroke involves a wrist motion like 'turning a doorknob' numerous times, & I can do this, however the stick wont rebound muchbecause of the two 'upper' fingers. Also, I while this motion works fine for the snare drum, when I have to move my arms upward to reach the toms it quickly becomes unwieldy.

Can anyone tell me what Im doing wrong, or point me in the direction of some internet material that can help me?

Agreed, it's the death grip. When I first tried to play trad I suffered a major case of it, and my teacher was instrumental in pointing out the technical problems to me. Don't worry too much about the two upper fingers: the core of the trad grip is in the stick sitting between your thumb and index finger, and in the wrist.

Hold your left hand out in front of you and position your thumb against the side of your palm, exerting no more force than necessary, so that your thumb and index finger are parallel. Now relax your wrist and your fingers, but keep the thumb against the side of your palm. That's approximately what trad should feel like. Now put your stick in the cradle of your thumb and index finger, without putting the rest of your fingers around it, and just use your wrist to move the stick.

That movement is the essence of traditional grip. The other fingers should be supporting the stick, but only influencing rather than determining the movement of the stick.

Some very cool replys here. Ive been having these same problems just getting my feet wet with the trad grip. After seeing Smith, Vinnie, Dave, Gadd, Buddy, etc etc all use trad ive said thats it. NOW my latest DVD with JoJo Meyer who can burn also is using trad. Dam it, i HATE this new awkward way of relearning when i can already get around fine with matched. Yes, time and patients is the answer and patients has always been something i have little of.

Good stuff here.  I too learned trad grip only to use in marching band situations (bagpipe band in this case.)  It took me years to develop any reasonable facility with it and now I do reasonably well with it.  (I've been in competitive pipeband for about 14 years now.)  But you know what?  I still use only matched behind the kit!  I just find it easier to move around that way! 

I admire your desire to expand your horizons.  Who knows, it may end up being something very useful for you.  Just know that there are a lot of different techniques and theories with trad grip and it takes time to figure out just what approach(es) that will work best for you.  I guess I'd just caution you not to feel like you have to work on it in order to be a better drummer.  Some may argue that you need to use trad grip in order to be a better jazz drummer.  Tell that to Bill Stewart though!  It's not an absolute!  The same thing can be said about rock drumming - you must play matched!  Tell that to Todd Sucherman!  Anyway, let us know what you decide and how you progress!