Hi Jake,
There are different grips... the modern techniques have evolved from Tympani methods, and from military marching.
The French grip is "thumbs up", while the German grip has the thumb to the side.
So, with th French grip, if you are looking at your hand holding the stick from above, you hold it like you would a hammer, with the thumb on TOP of the stick.
This method isn't bad for really hard hitting, but it's use is limited...there's power, but it doesn't allow for much intricate playing.
The German grip is pretty much the standard.
You hold the stick, with the thumb to the side, and the index finger above...so that when you look at your hand from above, you should be looking down on the back of your hand.
Some guys tend to try to make a perfect line from their elbow to the end of the stick (I played that was for years). If you use that method - your wrist is actually "out of place", and it forces you to rely more on your fingers because the wrist's motion is limited. It's good for building up the fingers, but you need to be able to play from the wrist. This technique makes you play using the entire arm in place of the wrist.
So, you should leave your wrist in it's natural position.
Then hold the stick between the index finger and thumb in the german grip-while your remaining fingers would lightly touch the stick. Then instead of raising your arm really high, you use a whip like motion, where your wrist rolls over to raise the stick, instead of your whole arm raising.
For Traditional marching grip, you hold the butt of the stick in the part of your hand between the Thumb and index finger, while the body of the stick sits between your middle and ring fingers; the stick should sit on top of your ring finger between the first and second knuckles.
The movement of this motion, is that you raise the stick by ROLLING your wrist over and snapping it like a whip, not by just raising the stick with your arm. (like most guys try to do when the first attempt this grip).
The Traditional grip has a few uses that are unique to it, for example, one of the things that I can do using the traditional grips is that I can do a snare roll with one hand. Some guys claim to be able to do a one handed roll, and they will set the stick on the rim of the drum and use the drum hoop as a fulcrum point, but my technique is the real deal....it's the one used by guys like Buddy Rich, and Jim Chapin (Chapin is the one who developed this technique and taught it to Buddy Rich.)
The old timers have kept quiet about this technique because it "gave them an edge"....but now that most of those guys have died, and Jim Chapin is in his 80's, he began letting a few people who were his advanced students, in on the secret.
Tim
