For the timpani grip, in addition to the things that were already said in the part about the snare drum and the drum set, it should be emphasized that when adopt the vertical grip, in order to stop the vibrations in a satisfactory way, you have to continuously turn your wrist. This is an additional movement that can create difficulties in fast “passages.” In addition, when there is a great resonance (and you stop the vibrations with only three fingers) it can happen that you're not pressing a sufficient area with adequate force (fig. 6).

With the horizontal grip, on the other hand, it is sufficient to open the fingers and, also freeing the thumb, you can stop a wider area with greater pressure (fig. 7).

Finally, it remains to say that the four mallet grips used by timpanists (for the execution of rolled chords and technical affectations) are identical to those used for the vibraphone and marimba that we will examine later on.


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