Should Left Handed Drummers Play Open Handed? Left Handed Drumming presents several options. Open handed. Right handed. Left handed. We look at all options for left handed drummers to see what the best choice is for you. Watch the video here.
Should Left Handed Drummers Play Open Handed? Left Handed Drumming presents several options. Open handed. Right handed. Left handed. We look at all options for left handed drummers to see what the best choice is for you. Watch the video here.
Left handed drummer: The most logic approach for a left handed drummer, in my mind anyway, is to set the drumset up for pure left hand drumming (the opposite of right-handed set up).
Since almost every drumbook and rudiment is made with right-handed drummers in mind, one can see every practice / rudiment start with the right hand. This then fit logically in with right-handed set up drumset. My advice to left-handed drummers will therefore be to practise drumbook / rudiment mirror-vice: Where the drumbook / rudiment says ‘r’ (right hand) the left-handed should play ‘l’ (left hand) and vice versa: When the drumbook says ‘l’ (left hand) the leftie should play ‘r’ (right hand). This will make the playing more logic (and more fun) on a drumset organized pure left-handed – mirrorvise of a right-handed setup).
This will also make playing 16-th-notes on the hi-hat with alternate sticking easier.
I am a very left-handed person. I started playing drumset with a right-hand approach, and did that for 14 years – ending up frustrated, as I felt something was not working the way I wanted it to do, especially regarding the hi-hat. I then changed to open-handed approach – and it felt much better. I was still however not satisfied, as open-handed set up did not allow for playing 16-th-beat with alternate (v-r-v-r-v-r-v-r) sticking. So I therefore turned the drumset completely around for pure left-handed playing. I also started to do all practise (book / rudiment) left-handed, as I started playing ‘l’ where the book / rudiment says ‘r’ and vice versa. I then also automatically start roll and rudiment with my left hand.
So now I am a much more happy (left-handed) drummer.