Traditional Versus Matched Grip

Chris Kimmerer: With one teacher at Belmont, in Nashville, it just drove him nuts that I would want to play some things with traditional grip and some things matched grip. Physically it makes more sense to play matched. You have more muscles this way. I totally dig that. But there's something about flipping that over to traditional. It kind of frees my limbs up a little bit. I think it is also better for nuanced playing.

I tend to have a lot more power behind the matched grip, which works for the big rooms we're playing now. I also find matched grip a lot more consistent, which has been a big factor for making records and doing sessions as well. The consistency of how you hit that drum is everything.

I'll go to traditional grip when I want to stay off of back beats and the rim shot thing. I use that when I want to just find that center of the drum and let the instrument speak that way.