What happened?

[Dan the Speakerman]

I was just at rush.com , watching the footage they have there from the Hartford show, and I'm QUITE surprised by Neil!

He was playing matched grip in every shot???

Did he give up on going back to traditional? I mean, that was a BIG part of his personal re-invention in the mid 90's and his studies with Gruber. He spends a lot of time talking about it in his video, too.

What do you think? Why did he switch back?

[Rythmstik]

Maybe he re-reinvented himself?

[bz]

Neil played the entire Scranton show matched grip, I was surprised myself.

[fartnokker]

Playing with match(ed)es...

Talk about tough...

I learned to play snare & rudiments traditional grip. In high school marching, I had to switch to matched grip on snare, but continued traditional grip in symphonic/concert playing. Always played drumset with matched grip, but still revert to traditional when being serious about rudimental stuff, on the practice pad or snare.

If I had to play the drumset traditional grip for everything, tho, it would be like losing control & setting my playing back by a couple of decades.

Maybe Neil finally succumbed to "doing what feels right" as opposed to trying to conform to someone else's ideal method. Besides, we all know that physiologically, matched grip allows you to use more and larger muscles to control your movement than traditional grip. Just makes sense. Unless you have a snare drum slung over your shoulder & resting against your left knee, that is...

[JeffVA]

He used the matched grip on "Driven" at the Virginia Beach show on the 3rd.

Jeff

[Boingo]

Re: Playing with match(ed)es...

Originally posted by fartnokker
Maybe Neil finally succumbed to "doing what feels right" as opposed to trying to conform to someone else's ideal method.

Originally posted by JeffVAHe used the matched grip on "Driven" at the Virginia Beach show on the 3rd.

Since we are guessing, I'll throw in my $.025. Maybe there are certain styles of drumming that work best with matched while others work best with traditional. I have seen many drummers switch, some doing so in the middle of a solo. They sure don't appear to be doing it to impress anyone. I'm light years away from Neil's class but I switch up every now and then. Since I don't have enough to be considered impressive, I can assure you it's strictly being in a comfort zone.

[Marc.]

If you all will recall a past post of mine, I had revealed that Mr. Peart was not flesh & blood. Apparently, a recent attempt to download some humanistic algorithms seems to have either malfuntioned or expired. For someone it's 'back to the lab'.

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[mbrg]

match grip

I agree that unless your snare drum is for some reason at an odd angle, traditional grip serves no purpose. 90% of the rest of the world has always used matched grip. It makes sense. and for the guys that still use it, they are doing so because they either played in marching band years ago or think it looks cool. Neil's style especially makes absolutely no sense to use traditional grip. I think he was board. If he wanted to reinvent himself, how about learning another style of music? He is one of my favorite drummers of all time, but lets face it, he only has one demension to his style.......

[Marc.]

Re: match grip

Originally posted by mbrg
... and for the guys that still use it, they are doing so because they either played in marching band years ago or think it looks cool.

Obviously, only someone who has never been proficient at trad. grip could make such a statement.

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[gingerbaker]

I never learned traditional grip, but I saw an older fellow playing with a schmaltzy trio who used it to great advantage.

He kept his H-H close to his snare, and while playing licks on the snare with both hands, he would dip the back end of his left stick and play the H-H with it. He did some cool syncopated stuff using this technique, and it was fun to watch him waving the left stick up and down - pretty flashy.

[Boingo]

Re: match grip

Tits on a man serve no purpose. They make no sense. Maybe we should cut them off. Do you think guys that wear them think they can give milk with those puppies or maybe they just think they're cool?

I saw this video the other day of some guy named Buddy Rich. What's up with this guy? Can you believe he was playing traditional grip? His drums were hardly at an angle. I could tell he was either bored, board, or just trying to look cool. Possibly he should reinvent himself or get a new dEmention. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Golly, gee whiz Mbrg, can't we just play with whatever grip we feel comfortable with without being analyzed, criticized or stereotyped?
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Once was 100 % traditional grip.
Now New and Improved!
A new dimention added with 10% matched grip!

[fartnokker]

Non-traditionalism in drumming

On Neil's "Work In Progress" video, he actually explains in nauseating detail his reasoning for trying to work trad grip into all of his playing, pros and cons of it, and how he'd always "normally played matched grip, but would switch to traditional grip for more rudimental passages." Rudimental as in flamacue, not rudimental as in crude or basic, of course!

Ranman has an unfair selective advantage over us 4-limb drummers, in that he gets 2 for the price of 1 on sticks and doesn't have to muck about deciding if traditional is superior to matched! Do you play left-foot snare, a la Rick Allen, Ranman? If I remember 1983 very well, he was a traditional grip guy as well when drumming two-handed. Guess the V-drums are just about perfect for your application, eh?

With much respect,

[Dan the Speakerman]

Re: Playing with match(ed)es...

Originally posted by fartnokker


Maybe Neil finally succumbed to "doing what feels right" as opposed to trying to conform to someone else's ideal method.

IMHO, I think Danny hit it on the head.

The whole reason I brought this up is that reputedly, he played the whole T4E tour (I don't know this for a fact...little help from someone who saw that tour?) traditional grip, so he would have been playing the OLDER material that way too, correct? Plus, he showed in the vid he could play his style quite well in traditional.

Any way he plays he's great....I was just surprised, after all that he talked about in his video pretty exhaustively on traditional grip, that he chose to switch back to matched for general playing.

[KuzinRob]

Re: match grip

Originally posted by mbrg
Neil's style especially makes absolutely no sense to use traditional grip.

I beg to differ. Stewart Copeland and Rick Allen pre-1983 are the biggest two examples I could think of; drummers in heavy rock settings who use traditional grip.

I think he was board.

Nope, see here http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthre...6173#post86173 to find out the last time Neil was really "board."

If he wanted to reinvent himself, how about learning another style of music? He is one of my favorite drummers of all time, but lets face it, he only has one demension to his style.......

Haven't heard the Burning for Buddy sessions, especially the more recent ones? I downloaded a few tunes, and he is quite fluent in them.

[KuzinRob]

Also, let us not forget that he barely played the drums at all for four years. Maybe matched grip was just the easiest way to get started again?

On the Test for Echo tour, most of the "simpler" songs are the ones in which he used traditional grip. I have several videos showing him using traditional for the following tunes: Dreamline, Driven, Half the World, the beginning of Red Barchetta, Animate, Limbo, Virtuality, Nobody's Hero, the beginning of Closer to the Heart, Test for Echo, Subdivisions, Roll the Bones, Resist, parts of The Rhythm Method, the beginning of Natural Science, parts of Force Ten, and Time and Motion. He uses matched for the rest, including: The Big Money, Limelight, Stick it Out, the rest of Red Barchetta, The Trees, Red Sector A, the rest of Closer to the Heart, 2112, Free Will, Leave That Thing Alone!, parts of The Rhythm Method, the rest of Natural Science, parts of Force Ten, The Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer, and YYZ. Basically all of the hard-hitting songs have always required him to play matched, even on the Test for Echo tour.