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Many years ago I was sitting in a motel room with my good friend and Bassist Peter Amazing watching a band play on TV while waiting to go onstage ourselves. The drummer on the tube was playing “open handed” style. That is, he was not crossing his right hand over his left to play the hi-hat with his right hand. Instead he was playing the hi-hat notes with his left hand and hitting the back beat with his right. Everything about his set up said he was a righty but he defied convention by playing open handed. I had never seen a right handed drummer play this way before and I was intrigued by it. Peter noticed it too and commented that it sure seemed to make a lot more sense to not cross your limbs and play the instrument with the limb that is nearest to it. I agreed but my response was probably something like, “yeah it looks easy but why do you think most drummers don’t do it that way?” Because it fights our natural inclination for the non-dominant hand to follow what the dominant hand or foot is doing, is the answer.

Of course after this learning experience I had to try and play open handed (when no one was around). At first it was very difficult and I had to slow it way down and plod, trying to play a beat that I could easily play cross-handed. It made me feel uncoordinated and gave me that strange, disorienting feeling drummers get when they challenge their limb independence. I was determined, however to improve my left hand and came up with a few exercises, beats and devices to get my left hand to become more a part of the team. Becoming more ambidextrous is very beneficial for drummers beyond simply being able to play the hi-hat left handed. For instance, having the ability to lead a fill with either limb expands the possibilities for creative drumset playing. It increases fluidity and improves general dexterity and facility. Limbs are no longer resigned to their assigned “drummerly” tasks but are free to strike surfaces at will using economy of movement. In short non-dominant hand work will improve your overall performance and increase control and therefore confidence, while opening up your kit for you.

To begin with I just played a straight rock beat like Ringos’ tasty feel on the song Sgt. Pepper but very slow. I played ¼ notes on the hat at first until I felt confident enough to add 1/8 notes. All this time I was still playing at a very slow tempo of around 60 bpms. What I discovered was that we are not stuck with whatever we were born with and learned as children. Ambidexterity can be learned and major improvements can be made with time, patience and consistent hard work. How much should I practice? How fast do you want to get better?

Rudiments and Para-Triple Diddles

Everyone should know that playing the rudiments to a metronome is something that builds coordination, improves grip, improves hand independence and internalizes a solid tempo feel. Playing the rudiments to a metronome was a huge help for me in realizing my goal of improving left hand ability. However, I found I needed something to work the left hand even more. To that end I noticed that if I played a paradiddle diddle and removed any pauses between switching from playing it leading with the left to leading with the right, then it put three strokes on each hand at the beginning of each line. In other words like this: LLLRLLRRRLRR.

I call these Para-Triple Diddles. This exercise will improve your left hand speed and coordination tremendously if practiced for 20-30 minutes several times a week. I can now play this exercise faster than I would have ever thought possible. While speed is not an end in itself and is not necessarily better than slow it does tend to challenge our hands to play looser and with a more relaxed grip. The faster you play the looser and more relaxed you should play. In fact relaxing is the key to pulling off this exercise at higher tempos. Also, this exercise can be played anywhere just using your hands on your legs or table top (as long as you’re not driving someone nuts….“Is that you tapping again?”). When you get a handle on this exercise try playing quads with either hand like this: LLLLRRRR. Always use a metronome and gradually increase the tempo as you go.

I always encourage my students to make up their own rudiments and sticking exercises. This triple diddle exercise can also be used to help left foot coordination when learning double pedal or double bass playing. This can open a whole new world of limb independence for the drummer and will be the subject of another article.

YO-YO Man

I noticed when playing with a yo-yo that the wrist imitates the feel of throwing down a drumstick. It’s a wrist based action that needs to be relaxed and focused and in time with the rhythm of the yo-yo’s up and down action. With this in mind I decided to start throwing a yo-yo with my left hand. I found that while it was not too difficult to do it made me more aware of my left hand and what it does, how it moves. So, in my spare time sometimes you would see me walking around working a yo-yo with my left hand. I also began to be more aware of using my left hand to do everyday tasks such as eating, opening doors, throwing a wad of paper in the trash, brushing my hair or teeth.

Last summer I suffered an injury to my right hand and could not play in the conventional manner for a while. I used it as an opportunity to work my left hand. I was forced to use my left for everything and it improved even more. Having said that there is still (and always will be) room for improvement. The non-dominant hand/foot gets neglected because it’s easier to rely on the dominant side but it has the same potential for coordination and independence as the dominant hand/foot does. Like everything else it just takes work.

Now that I can play beats using my left hand on the hat I am free to use my left hand on a crash and free to use my right in ways I couldn’t before. Having better left hand coordination and independence makes things like the triplets on the snare in a Texas shuffle possible. It also makes it easier to keep a groove going and not interrupt it to play a fill. Non-dominant hand work makes it easier to play the stuff you hear in your head and that is an important goal. For instance left hand work enables me to reach over with my left and hit a hi-hat “shoop” or tom hit(s) without stopping the groove being played by my right hand on the ride cymbal. The work I did on my left side enabled me to play a pattern where I have a recurring ostinato being played with my left on the snare and toms with ½ note accents on the right kick, and a ¼ note feel ride pattern on the ride cymbal (right hand), with a ¼ note based hi-hat pattern played with the left foot. All four limbs are used simultaneously in this pattern. Next challenge for me: playing syncopated funk beats open hand style.

There are no secrets or shortcuts, just devotion to your craft and a willingness to play/work it. The only “shortcut” I know is to set up your kit so everything is easily accessible and have your pedals loose enough to get some bounce and not so far from the beater or with such tension that you feel like your stepping on a brick. Make it easy for you to play your kit because it’s hard enough to do without placing obstacles in your path.

You need to be better than you need to be because you never know when you will be required to play something. Enjoy playing.

more articles by Scott Taylor

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