Ramon Montagner | Two sticks in one hand

Most technical innovations in drumming are refinements of something that already existed. Occasionally somebody adds a genuinely new capability.

Ramon Montagner holds two sticks in one hand and plays independent parts with them. He calls it dual grip, and it is exactly as strange as it sounds.

He is also one of the most systematic teachers of the push-pull technique working, and Drumeo’s panel gave him the Viola Smith Award for Defying Expectations in 2024.

Who is Ramon Montagner?

Ramon Montagner is a Brazilian drummer, author and educator.

He works primarily as a teacher and technician — the sort of drummer whose reputation is built on what he can demonstrate and, crucially, on what he can write down.

The books

Three textbooks, plus a fourth co-authored:

• Drums and Double Bass in Brazilian Music (2007)
• Imaginação Rítmica — coordination studies for Brazilian rhythms (2017)
• Rhythmic Imagination — studies for developing the push-pull technique (2022)
• Extreme Polyrhythm, Coordination and Speed Techniques, with Alex Cohen, through Hudson Music

He has also taught at The Collective in New York and runs his own push-pull course.

The techniques

Three things, in order of strangeness.

Push-pull

A one-handed technique for generating multiple notes per arm motion. The hand pushes the stick down with the fingers on the way in and pulls it back on the rebound, so one motion yields two or more strokes.

It is the mechanism behind most extremely fast single-handed playing, and it is closely related to the open-close technique that Yoni Madar teaches. Montagner has arguably taken it further than anyone.

Slide technique

Moving the hand along the stick mid-phrase to change the fulcrum, and therefore the rebound characteristics, without stopping.

Dual grip

Two sticks in one hand, played independently.

This is the one that gets the attention, and reasonably so. It effectively gives you a third and fourth “hand” — patterns that would otherwise require two players.

It is not a party trick in his hands; he uses it musically, in grooves.

What Ramon Montagner actually does

He extends what one limb can do. Every one of his techniques is about getting more notes, more independently, out of fewer limbs.

He has a Brazilian foundation. His first book is on Brazilian rhythms with double bass, and that vocabulary — samba, baião, maracatu — runs underneath the technical material.

He writes it down. Four books. In a field where most knowledge is transmitted by video and imitation, that is unusual and valuable.

He teaches slowly. The push-pull course is built on sequenced, incremental work, not on demonstration.

Ramon Montagner’s setup

• Drums — Tama.
• Cymbals — Meinl.
• Heads — Evans.
• Sticks — Promark. Which, given the dual grip, he presumably gets through faster than most.
• Beaters — Lowboy.

Every era, with buy links, is on Ramon Montagner’s Rig Vault page.

Want the sound without the rig?

None of this needs a specific kit. It needs a pad and a plan.

Learn push-pull first. It is the foundation, it is the most immediately useful of the three, and it will do more for your speed than any pedal or stick change. Our how to drum faster piece covers why the mechanics matter more than effort.

Then try dual grip, badly, for a month. Two sticks in one hand, playing straight eighths. You will drop them constantly. That is the process.

And check your stick choice. A lighter, more balanced stick makes finger-driven technique far easier — our drumstick size guide covers the trade-offs. The Gear Guru will handle the rest of the shopping.

Where to start

• His push-pull workshop videos. The clearest explanation available.
• Rhythmic Imagination (2022). The push-pull book.
• Extreme Polyrhythm, Coordination and Speed Techniques. With Alex Cohen.
• Any dual grip demonstration. For the sheer improbability of it.

Final thoughts

Drumming does not get genuinely new techniques very often. Most of what looks new is a rebranding of something a big band drummer was doing in 1948.

Dual grip is actually new, and push-pull as Montagner teaches it is a serious extension of an existing idea rather than a repackaging. Both are documented in books that anybody can buy, which is the part that will matter in fifty years.

Defying expectations, indeed.

See Ramon Montagner’s full rig in the Rig Vault, or read about Alex Cohen — his co-author, and another drummer working at the technical frontier.