Advice on traditional grip

Press rolls, similar to buzz but with pressure, almost single strokes pressed into the head. Buzz rolls= no pressure.
 
Kudos to those of us who suffer from dystonia and have persevered in their playing. I've been deterred/discouraged in my own playing from far less. I don't have much advice to offer, as others' input seems much more informed than anything I could say, but I offer my encouragement. In my journey with traditional grip, I've found patience to be important. Someone linked a Rob Brown video in this thread, and if I remember correctly, it took him well over a year to feel competent with traditional grip, and adopting a journey vs. destination mindset has been helpful for me.

Since this thread is the only active traditional grip discussion, I hope you'll humor a point about traditional vs. matched (and I don't mean to be adversarial). We all know why and how trad. grip came about, but I think to end discussion of its relevance there misses the important point that traditional grip players mainly developed the drumset as an instrument (I'm no drum historian, so I'll be happy to be corrected). If this is true, then matched grip should be considered an adaptation to playing the drumset, as it was meant to be played with the traditional grip. Thoughts?
 
Eh, I wouldn't say the drumset was "meant" to be played with traditional grip. Traditional grip is just what people played, and as time went on it became less common because the drums weren't sitting at the extreme angle anymore.

In my own little journey here, I've had to try and compromise for best results sooner - I'm having to forego the trad grip journey (again) as the lack of middle finger mobility is hijacking my ability to relax again. After a lot of fiddling around I've found I'm getting the most relaxed feeling from played a very flat German style grip and using the middle finger as the primary fulcrum. I'm still going to persevere with trying to develop a French-style grip (which is what my original intention was to start with), but I need to work on the finger mobility before I can do that.

In my experiments with working out my issue, I've pretty much narrowed things down to a couple of stretches that focus on stretching the forearm; and holding my pinky and index fingers down with my thumb whilst stretching, or attempting to straighten my middle + ring fingers.

It's looking to me like when I can finally hold a 'peace' sign with my left hand with my middle finger positioned in the same way as the index finger, that's when I'll probably have enough mobility to really fix my technique. Hopefully it won't take too long to fix 20+ years of poor neural training :)
 
I'm 60 and got bk into playing last year. Last time I played I was 19 and I'd practically forgotten everything including the match grip we all just used bk then as teens.
This time around trad just kinda happened maybe because of my interest in jazz...and now I can't even hold match. There's just something about trad that feels good...Maybe it's just me but I get a sense of real fine control and power with trad....who knows..
 
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I'm 60 and got bk into playing last year. Last time I played I was 19 and I'd practically forgotten everything including the match grip we all just used bk then as teens.
This time around trad just kinda happened maybe because of my interest in jazz...and now I can't even hold match. There's just something about trad that feels good...Maybe it's just me but I get a sense of real fine control and power with trad....who knows..
you know, I see a physiotherapist specialized in musician' troubles and first thing he told me is: "traditional grip is way more natural for the arm up to the shoulder and even the back than palm facing down..."
 
This may be additional research subjects for Agrippa, but I find my brain works harder at matched grip, since my left hand is trying to match my dominant right grip and sound. With trad that disappears since my brain doesn’t need to spend time and effort trying to match both hands...
 
Update on dystonia, botox and trad grip.

The botox injections really worked for me. The doc gave me a very small dose and I would say that I achieved 50% reduction in the dystonia symptoms. The injection has worn off yet I retained some of the gains.

Next shot 12-2-2019. Going full strength this time.

The trad grip is a great way to be able to keep practicing or playing even when the dystonia acts up, There is definite crossover between grips. Plus, my goal is to make MUSIC. How I hold the sticks matters nothing to any listener.

My doubles with trad absolutely smoke my doubles with matched. The dystonia really inhibits rebound. I don't know if my matched doubles will ever be as good as trad, so I've also been working on the ability to switch between grips quickly and easily. Todd Sucherman is one of the best at employing both grips seamlessly.
 
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