Notes:
This document assumes the use of a small standard right handed drumkit setup.
Approach
Being
a right handed player, one approach I have found most useful of late is
changing my right hand hi-hat to left hand or playing 'open'. At first
it may feel odd or alien if you have been playing the traditional cross
handed technique for years previously. I was perhaps unaware that my
right hand was stronger and faster than the left and that the weaker
hand was preventing me from achieving certain goals, in particular
noticing a flaw in my paradiddles it was the left side that was letting
me down.
A method I found useful in bringing my left hand up to
speed was to play through simple songs open handed, left hand on hi-hat
at a comfortable speed but making sure to play the whole song/track. It
would be quite simple to do a bar or two, but I noticed when playing
longer sections that I could not keep up. This is a problem many have
when performing live, along with all the other pressures of gigging
their stamina would wane and compromise the performance.
Open Handed Method
Notable
players of the open handed technique are Mike Mangini and Simon
Phillips. After developing a more balanced strength in the left hand and
being able to play with more confidence you find you have more options
open to you to play complex patterns which would be much harder when
crossing the hands. I recently had to learn to tune Sing by Ed Sheeran
and this technique lent itself nicely to the song which essentially has a
simple beat with electronic tom tom sounds on top of it.
Often
drummers will have an alternative snare or drum on the left hand side of
the hi-hat, which effectively creates the open handed device. Of course
this is another way to achieve the same result if adding drums to the
drum set, but it does not, perhaps, help in achieving ambidexterity.
Conclusion
Although
this article only describes the use of mirroring what the hands may do
it could also be applied to the feet or indeed playing cross handed but
with a left handed kit setup. It all depends on what type of drummer you
are and what you wish to aim for. After adopting an open handing
technique I still prefer to play cross handed and this may always be the
case having played this way for so long previously.
See also :
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