Open-Handed Drumming: Is it worth it?

What are the costs and benefits of open-handed playing? Ambidexterity? Switching sides? Should a left-handed drummer learn to play on a right-handed drum set? We explore all of this and more in this video follow-up to my 30-day left-handed drumming experiment.

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[famitory]

if you're thinking of trying open handedness, and you start liking it, lower your hihat! now that you don't have to crossover, it's ergonomically much better to have your snare and hihat at the same height and spaced a little farther apart when your arms are open.

[noahdentonmusic]

My teacher Thomas Pridgen has told me to start setting up my drum kit openhanded lol, it's not comfortable at first, but it's worth it!

[llamamall]

I'm a rightie playing on a standard right-handed kit, and I became open-hand "on accident" a few years ago after I practiced playing left-handed in order to improve my balance. Definitely improved my dynamic range!

[cheezruff]

I've been playing drums for 50 years. About 15-20 yrs into it, I began adding open handed practice, mostly rock beats, inspired by Simon Phillips. I was also building jazz, fusion, and funk, but only working on those styles righty. As time went by more open handed abilities (such as ghosting and busier ride patterns) developed. Fast forward to today, my cross-handed righty is rusty and my open handed is not at advanced levels yet. My takeaway is that both lefty and righty need ongoing maintenance and development.

[dave]

I started playing Open Handed after i first saw Simon Phillips Live. Never looked back after that. Really helped my playing

[rchlclr]

As a guitarist who only plays drums occasionally, I cross my hands because my right hand is used to subdividing and I want that on the hi-hat. But of course that's because I don't have time to take drums more seriously, and I only play as a substitute when the real drummers aren't around

[JUL-Nomad-Soul]

Started as lefty and was tired of turning around the drums for jams
so taught myself open handed best thing ever <3

[bartoszdolewski]

Due to COVID-19 situation goings-on on and lacks of live gigs, I dedicated myself to switched to open handed over in 2020 (but just the hi-hat) Wish me luck

[Drumhead]

Another benefit of learning open-handed is if you get injured, you can still play one-handed way more effectively. I hurt my wrist and was able to do a music theatre gig 70-80% left-handed or one-handed because I spent time on developing open-handed playing. I only had to switch to right-handed mode for big fills, and on a right-handed kit, this made way more sense than leading with the left hand into a fill.

The reason for having new vocabulary with tom arrangement is interesting too but it reminds me of a Timpanist's setup. I've always wondered what a Timpanist's reasons are for crossing over. They seem to have a reason for doing it in phrases rather than changing stickings. They could arrange stickings to play it open-handed, but at certain speeds that probably would be difficult getting from one drum to another. It also makes me think of earlier jazz drummers doing cross over phrases on toms, and makes me wonder if there are phrases there that we miss out on by only playing open-handed on toms rather than working on cross over techniques as well.

For me I think the best is to use parts of both techniques. I'd imagine a whole new world of vocabulary would open up by doing cross over tom playing on a Mangini style kit, as we've seen that happen with open-handed/standard kit players like Billy Cobham and Simon Phillips. Watching Sput play grooves with Snarky Puppy is interesting too, because he seems to switch between crossed and open handedness just for the sake of changing it, or maybe that's where he is with learning open-handed playing.

I'd love to see a comparison of drummers learning transcriptions from a standard kit, on a Mangini or Bill Bruford style kit, and also learning transcriptions from a Mangini or Bruford kit on a standard drum kit.

[billmint]

Dude, huge props for using the Sonic drowing music at 11:06! hahaha

[cjbralph]

Well, this has totally made me rethink what I teach and why. Definitely been going with the 'this is the way it's done' approach - but maybe that needs to change.

[treehorn]

Shawn, I've been a huge fan of yours ever since I first heard Sungazer. I just want to tell you that I've been teaching my friends to hi-hat with their left hand and it's been going great! I'm super appreciative of all the work that goes into your videos and how you've paved my path for this facet of music. You're the G.O.A.T. and a huge inspiration

[JVR]

Left handed drummer here. Here's my experience. I started playing drums about ten years ago, just jumping on drum sets when they were around (I'm a bass player first so any drum set I would play on would be someone else's after band practice was done). Obviously they were all right handed sets, and I was able to grasp playing pretty easily except for two major things: my right foot was pathetic and I struggled to coordinate alternate sticked drum patterns (anything where the sticking was rlrl like a disco beat or a basic drum fill). Eventually I was able to get the alternating sticking down but I could never get truly comfortable with my right foot. When I finally came into enough money to get a cheap drum set, I knew that I had to set it up lefty and reteach myself how to play...or so I thought. Turns out that I was able to play left handed almost immediately, as I just had to apply my already developed skills to my dominant hand. I've gotten a little better with my right foot as well due to me learning more complex double kick drum patterns, and I can now more or less play on any drum kit I may come across, although my right foot is still nowhere near my left. I do think that there is something to be said for how you feel the music though. Even though I had started playing righty first, playing left handed felt immediately more comfortable to me. I play bass/guitar right handed, but I do everything else in life with my left hand, so I guess my reliance on my left hand made the switch on drums easier.

[drumsettheater]

Great analysis! I've been slowly working on open handed playing (just uncrossing the hands but with the kit set up in a typical way).

[robertkees]

I'm a lefty human but a righty drummer, don't quite know how that happened, guess I just emulated what I saw which was right handed setups. 40 plus years I've been playing righty with one bass. Recently I added a ride for my left and took out the second bass pedal that's been in the case for a like a decade. Believe it or not I found down on his luck drummer and bought his almost new DW9000 double pedal complete for $220, but never used the second pedal. So now I'm riding with my left hand, and working on double bass patterns etc. It's amazing how those two things can reinvigorate ones practice habits. I guess my right ride hand will always be more articulate, but playing lefty ride, brings totally different results, even when I try to mimic one to the other. It's a blast to be able to just switch, and the HH is set up perfectly for either open or crossed playing, it's very versatile. It's really amazing to have this much fun with new directions on the drums, just more fuel to power the passion. Playing drums is like getting to go on the rollercoaster as many times as you like with no lines.

[erickcuevas]

This video has been exactly what I’ve been looking for as a lefty, so helpful and judgment free, and inspired me to finally pick up the drums after debating whether or not “it’s worth the time” ended up getting a rudiment pad to make sure both sides are solid before trying open handed on a kit.

[notvince]

I’m left handed but when I first started drumming I played on a right handed setup and just started playing open hand naturally. I never even realized it was different until I started talking to other drummers

[wolfumz]

I just started learning to play open handed. I'm a new drummer, less than 2 years playing. I actually really like it, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I still switch back and forth, but I think I'm going to stick with open handed drumming going forward.

If you're thinking about it, give it a shot. It took me a few weeks before I had most of my basic grooves down, and maube three months before I was comfortable. It's really stimulating, musically and mentally, it opens up new ideas. If you can clear the hump early on, it's worth it.

I had a weird thing happen lately, too. Maybe someone else can relate:

if I learn a really challenging groove (like, I'm copying Louis Cole or something, a groove that takes me many practice sessions and many hours ), if I learned it open handed first, I found that I _also_ play it crossed, without much practice. Like, whatever my brain was doing to force my hands to play this open handed, it automatically translated back to playing crossed. But that doesnt really work the other way around. If I learn a groove crossed, it's usually easier for me to learn it... but when I switch to open, it feels a lot more like I am starting from scratch, it takes a lot of struggling to get up and going.

So that's a weird thing Ive been noticing lately: its much easier for me to move from open to crossed... than from crossed to open.

[therealmicha]

Harry Miree, the dude himself, has a crazy drumkit! The theory behind it is connected to not wanting to cross hands and have everything on the right, while still leading with the right foot. Its really amazing actually :)

[argerm]

For oldsters like me, who have been playing cross-handed for 50+ years, it's probably of limited benefit to switch to open-handed playing. I do some of it just to be a little more flexible when playing certain things.

But for anyone starting out, why not play open handed, or ambidextrously? I am somewhat surprised when I see younger monster players who don't take advantage of this ability.

From a purely ergonomics standpoint, start playing open-handed or ambidextrously. I think you will benefit tremendously.