Grips Revisited

I just watched 4 of the greats playing vibes and laughed when I thought about everybody’s grip. It was hysterical.

First I watched Red Norvo. With 2 mallets he was totally choked up on the sticks. I guess that goes back to the xylophone days. Not sure why you’d have to be choked up like that, but I’ve seen photos of old xylophone players and that was the grip. Then with 4 mallets, he was totally choked also. AND the inside mallet was on top. With most of the grips these days, the outside mallet is on top.

Next we watched Milt Jackson. Man talk about an unorthodox grip. And those short sticks. Someone told me he has a cotton ball around each stick in his palms to help him hold the mallets. So his grip is one of a kind and he plays his ass off, and he looks so relaxed when he plays.

Then we watched Burton. WE ALL know about the burton grip inside out, backwards and forwards!!! He’s the first vibe player I paid attention to. He’s probably the most innovative on the instrument. He did more to push the instrument forward technically than anyone else. Sometimes I wonder about that. Whenever I listen to Teddy Charles or Victor Feldman I think they might have been on the same path as Burton technically. Teddy Charles did some amazing things with 4 mallets.

I remember thinking that maybe I was original when I began playing in a style I called ‘Stride Vibes’. Then vibist Wilson Moorman turned me onto Victor Feldman, and I heard some MEAN stride vibes. And on a side note, listen to Victor on the CD titled ‘The Arrival of Victor Feldman’ play the tune Be Bop. One of the fastest tempos I have every heard. Just for fun try and play along with it. AND if that’s not enough, guess who’s on bass! Scott Lafaro from the Bill Evans trio. Totally different style from what we’re all accustomed to listening to him. And on drums none other than Stan Levy, probably one of the best Be Bop drummers in the business.

Then we checked out Mike Mainieri. What grip is that? It almost looks like the Stevens Grip. He does some pretty cool stuff with 4 mallets. Totally unorthodox.

What’s so funny about all this, is it makes me think when I’m in lessons talking about grips, explaining why I think a student should use my grip over his or the others.

It hits me the other day in a lesson, when I was talking about grips. I tell my students to use my grip because that’s the one I know how to use AND teach. That’s really the only reason. Guys are making music holding those silly sticks all kinds of ways. But I can honestly only teach the grip I know. That made me feel a LOT better.

What’s funny is that those ARE the masters in every way. There’s only about 5 or 10 of them. The REAL masters and they hold their sticks EVERY funky way imaginable. Think of that next time someone is defending the way they play to you and telling why its advantages out way some other grip!