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Right and left hand

Started by William Daley, December 12, 2014, 10:28 AM

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William Daley

The brother is a left handed drummer who has played the right side most of his career.He has been doing little bits to help my grand daughter from time to time.

He has told us to get her to work on playing her left side as well as her right.What he says is that if she can master it it will put her right hand on the high hats and leave her left open for everything else.He calls it playing an open style and has done it for years.Claims it increases his speed when he wants to get into it.

Has anyone else here heard of this and does it really help?

donelk

Playing open handed is a good thing. Your brother is right. If you'd like to see a pro drummer doing it, youtube Simon Phillips.

http://youtu.be/o1jPudE8eRE]http://youtu.be/o1jPudE8eRE

Best of luck!

Bart Elliott

I agree with Don.

Crossing the hands is only because of equipment limitations and/or dominant limbs. Break free from the limitations and one can certainly do more with their playing.

It all comes down to being willing to work hard and develop the necessary technique. Obviously the majority of drummers throughout history where not willing to do this, so they cross-over.

I often times use a remote HiHat position almost directly in front of me, so that solves a lot right there (ie. equipment limitation). I also play open position for a number of styles. I can't do that, with confidence, when playing jazz ... yet.  ;)

William Daley

Years ago when I was at home as a young fellow I can honestly say that about all I heard was Krupa,Buddy Rich recordings lol.The brother has studied their styles for well over 40 years now .He played for Gary Buck for quite a while in Calgary.He says the highlites of his career in Canada was being on stage with Loretta Lynn,Charlie Pride and Don Williams.He also played for Skeeter Davis one of the times she was in Toronto.He was seventeen then.
He is working with the grand daughter but not as a teacher would.

Tim van de Ven

I play with my left hand on the hi hats (on a right-handed set-up) and I have my ride over the hats, where most drummers have a crash.

It most definitely helps to learn to play both traditional (one hand crossed over the other to reach the hats) and this left hand lead or open style.