Rick Beckham has a pretty good article on it HERE, written from a pro-matched-grip stance, and citing Mitch Markovich's previous writings on the topic. I've personally never read a convincing article in favor of traditional, but the grip has some staunch advocates.

It's all opinion, and a quick look around will show you there are some great drummers using both grips. If whatever grip you currently use is working for you, there's no need to learn another, unless there's a drum corps or marching band drumline you need to conform with.

    I'm just wondering what you guys think, do you ever think that traditional grip will die out, or cease to be very prevalent? I know it's probably not being taught very much to new students, and the only application where you absolutely need it would be DCI stuff. Just something to think about...it seems that traditional could go the way of the dodo.
    Oh yeah, and for those of you who are saying some things just feel better when played with traditional, I think that that is just a personal preference thing for you, since you probably grew up with that grip. Everything with traditional for me just feels completely alien!

I don't know if this will help the discussion or not. I'm sure someone out there knows much more about this than I do, but many years ago I realized that traditional grip was the only way marching snare drummers could have played their old-style instruments.

Many of you may remember the old Ludwigs, etc., that had a single strap which hung the drum from one shoulder (no fancy aluminum harness like the modern ones).  Most had a leg bracket to keep the drum over your left leg while marching.  I started out marching with one of those things. Those drums hung and tilted so extremely to the right that it would have been nearly impossible (and uncomfortable) to play matched grip without hitting the shank of the left stick on the hoop.

Like Mr. A said, many of us are either so comfortable with traditional for certain licks that we keep using it (it's kind of a, ummm, tradition ), or we have just never practiced the same licks enough with matched grip.

i do the same thing as mark occasionally.

sometimes even play with both hands like that.

I learned how to play drums using traditional, and for roughly the past 26 years, except for my metal phase during the early '80s, i've used traditional exclusively.

When you play traditional you might as well put on a beret'

I like/learned playing matched but I toy with traditional cause "it looks cool" but matched just makes much more sense to me, especially for tom and cymbal work.

My "aim" is much better with the matched grip.  I think that is important.

Felix Said:

You mean our aim is supposed to be accurate when we play?  

Seriously though, I HAVE to be accurate because the pads on my TrapKat are about 1/3 the size of most drum heads. Lots less room for error...

I'm one of those "corps snare guys" who grew up playing traditional.  The fact that I played a million exercises using traditional grip from ages 15-21 "burned" the grip into me.

After I was done with corps I wanted to switch to matched, because it simply seemed to make more sense.  Plus, a lot of the drummers I was into played on huge kits, and it seemed silly to play a huge kit with traditional grip.

Now that I feel 99% certain I'll never want to have a kit bigger than, say, 2 rack toms and 2 floor toms, I know I can get around pretty well with traditional.

I play about 75% traditional, 25% matched.  There's something that feels good about traditional that I can't explain.  Matched makes me feel like I'm in a 4x4 truck and can tackle the world.  Traditional feels like I'm laying back in a convertible with the top down & sunglasses on.

That is only my personal opinion, of course.  There's also something burned into my brain having to do with the fact that Stewart Copeland played traditional.

I will say that my left ring finger gets way more banged up playing traditional on drumset than it does playing snare drum - because on set the stick moves around more in my hand, while playing snare it stays in pretty much one spot relative to my hand.

One other thing - the only time on set I can think of where traditional is physically superior for me is while playing on the hi-hat with both hands.  Maybe my hi-hat is just high or something, but to play matched on it, my left wrist gets cocked at a funny angle.

Well, it's a good skill to have, especially in the studio.  Good aim helped Jim Gordon and Steve Gadd get work.