Drummer Ben Sesar - Switching to Traditional Grip

“Your switch to traditional grip. You have a very in depth blog analysis of this.”

It’s a hard thing to write about. Because it’s subjective, when I’m talking about the reasons why. 

Matched always felt tight to me. You know what I mean? I played 28 years matched not really knowing any better. That’s just kind of how I grew up playing. But as my senses kind of became more acute and I started paying attention to movement and economy of motion, I started to look at the things that are holding me back a little bit. And that brought me to the grip. I started realizing that matched was getting in my way a little bit. Not only that, but I felt kind of tight. And even though I couldn't play (that way yet), when I held the sticks with traditional grip, I felt this openness kind of take over. 

And then the other thing I noticed, as far as timing, match is a very linear movement. And I really try to place all of my note attacks purposefully. It’s almost like archery. You’re hitting a red dot in the center. The red dot’s this big, so you don’t have to hit the center of the center. You have a little wiggle room. But since I’m trying to hit it exactly where I want it each time, I noticed that with match it’s so economical and linear that the note would get there kind of before my brain wanted it to. So I almost needed the distance that the stick traveled to take longer. And traditional has that sort of rounded path to it. It’s not as linear. It’s like a backhand in tennis. It’s kind of a half-circle.  Ben Sesar New Drums

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