There are two main ways to hold drum sticks, called the matched grip and the traditional grip.^[2]

• In the matched grip, you hold the sticks between your thumb and index finger a few inches from the bottom of the sticks. Wrap your remaining fingers around the sticks. Be sure the back side of your hands are facing up rather than facing to the side. This method is the most common way of holding sticks, allowing you plenty of wrist control and comfort.
• In the traditional grip, you’ll hold the stick in your non-dominant hand by resting the stick in the cradle between your thumb and index finger and on top of your ring finger. Wrap your thumb, index and middle fingers around the stick. Hold the other stick using a matched grip. Some jazz drummers use a traditional grip to offer a different kind of control on the snare drum, playing intricate rhythms on it as part of fills.