So last week the BD at the school I instruct at informed me that a parent is upset with me. His son has developed CT or " Snare elbow" from learning traditional grip (7th grader). It was discussed between the BD and the Father that he would like to see matched grip taught to the up and coming drummers. Ha! Sorry....

Now in this fathers 2 year carrier in high school as a snare drummer, they used matched and no one ever had problems with CT. Well so what! Sorry.....
So now it is being tabled that we switch grip, ha! As you can see I have no love for matched griped snare drummers. It's an abomniation!!!!

Hey I'm open minded to most any thing but this dog won't hunt! I've read through our's and other sites debate on witch is better Trad or matched. Now I havent read or heard any good reason(s) for switching, other than the BD and Instructor are....

Never mind, ok so here it is... Let me here your reasons why I should Change the next 12 year reign at this school, that's how long I have this percussion department.

Besides it too quite around here, so talk it up I'm waiting for any good reason why I should change. Good luck!

You should change because the nightmare that the parents can create for you is not worth it. Keep your sanity and keep the parents on your side and just play matched.

In all the years I've been instructing, I've never had a student develop carpal tunnel syndrome from playing. Not with traditional grip or any other grip. If one player gets injured, it's an anomaly, not a trend. I've known far more people to get hurt from marching than playing. Should we stop doing that, too?

And while I haven't taught at the middle school level in a number of years, I have been around plenty of competitive middle school groups -- many of which use traditional grip. There are seven middle schools in my alma mater's circuit that field competitive winter percussion units and at least four of them play traditional grip. Springstowne Middle School is one example.

Of course, this is completely separate from the pedagogical discussion about whether or not to teach traditional grip to middle schoolers. I'd be more likely to side with your band director on those grounds than for one isolated instance of carpal tunnel.

If this particular parent wants his/her child to play matched grip and you don't want to change the line's technique, perhaps the student could play tenors?

Disclaimer for sake of total disclosure: I have known a few guys who developed repetitive stress injuries from playing, but they were all drum corps players who played 10+ hours per day on Falam heads. Very different circumstances.

I just wanted to add that I don't think you should have to switch or should switch I was just stating why it's in your best interest to do so.

Well DF, because of the parents is not something I worry about. Parents can be delt with, tactfully and respectfully. I do not fear parents.....

Good point SD, but one case of CT does not change my mind. For myself only 3 kids have developed CT, two from when k-flams came out in 89 and this one. In mine and the kids defence, the father has the 7th grader practicing on a sFz with a hybrid head. This is the cause of the CT, as I explained to the BD and the father that this is a bad idea for the student.

A type of grip does not give CT. Only constant playing and I'll add improper practice causes CT.

As too teaching trad grip to middle schoolers, this also is a good discussion but when do you teach trad? 7th or 8th grade? As soon as they pick up sticks. All three of my sons 13,12,11 all can play trad grip, French, German, and American grips. Granted they do as well as their little hands and mind can, but any drummer that comes through my line knows all grips.

As for instructors and BD's, are we not supposed to create Percussion artists? There is more than drumlines involved here...

There is so much more to percussion than drumlines, which is a valid reason some instructors choose NOT to use traditional grip. For the most part, traditional grip is a niche technique for marching snare drum and jazz drum set. Matched grips are also accepted technique in these idioms and pretty much everything else. Students can spend more time on mastery and application using a single grip instead of spending time learning different ones.

Not that I'm trying to advocate one way or the other. Just pointing out the other side of the argument.

I will concede to this point, I can not give a viable reason for not to switch. That being said, I have heard that matched it is more efficient way to play. With the aspect of snare lines not tilting their snare, it is not necessary to use traditional grip. Again not good enough.

In the past when I have met other instructors that only use matched grip, their only reason is that it is to hard to teach traditional grip. If that is so and I can understand that most BDs are not percussion grads and do not have access to a line instructor so yes matched is easier. Lazier if you ask me!

I only have few hundred years to stand on a " Tradional grip" being only tradition. And yes trad is very complicated, one day I hope to master it, ha. But how many (any) 1st place titles were won with matched? We see how far SCV went with matched, not far. If matched grip is so much better then why docent Scotty boy make the Blue Devils change.

The thing is, matched grip is simply the superior grip. Traditional grip was invented out of necessity. Matched grip will inherently make your students' hands more even, and it transfers over to much of the rest of the percussion family. While traditional grip does have more visual impact (it is a more aggressive stance, with your hand slightly higher and farther forward), it isn't worth cheating middle schoolers out of learning a more fundamental technique that will allow them to play more musically in all areas of percussion.

I think the question isn't why to switch, but why play traditional in the first place?

And as far as why the DCI lines don't change, while it's partially because of the visual aspect I mentioned, a big part of it is that middle and high school lines are too stubborn to give up on outdated grips which means that all of the snare players qualified to play on these lines are playing them in traditional grip. It doesn't make it better; it seems to me like people are just clinging to tradition for its own sake.

Well as far as matched being superior, ha! Sorry.. But all you have pointed out was that it's a visual aspect, so as a mallet man I can see why you would think that way. I don't mean to be rude but we are talking about snare drummers, again any instructor who refuses to imploy traditional grip usually can play it, or they were looking for a easy job.

Now talking with a sports therapist if I understood correctly the use of trad grip uses less muscles than matched, there for the left hand is works less than the right. If I remember right, hey any med students out there? Let's here from you all.

Oh also. Maybe you missed my statement that any and all of my drummers, learn every grip. And no I do not teach mallets, we have a dci front end tech.
My kids lack for nothing, 9 of them have percussion degrees and as of yet 16 of my kids have marched DCI, so my traditional grip teachings must be working some how.

Tom Aungst and Bret Kuhn can obviously play and teach traditional grip, but they've both chosen to use matched grip with their high school lines. With great success, too, both musically and competitively.

Murray Gusseck, even though he didn't spend his drum corps career playing traditional, is an incredibly smart dude and made this observation: The goal is to get the same sound quality from both hands, right? The most logical way to get the same sound out of each hand is to use the same approach for each hand.

Using matched grip isn't a cop-out. There are some pretty sound logical and pedagogical reasons to use matched grip. Personally, I don't care what grip a line uses if they play well.