Simon Phillips drum lesson: open-handed playing 

"Maybe I'd be a better drummer"....Simon Phillips. What an incredibly humble statement from one of the best drummers of all time.

I love Simon. He is so down to earth, and genuine.

What a nice guy. Great humble musicians are rare today.

Simon's phenomenal. It's strikes me as funny that he still uses the old school term "Tom Tom's" instead of simply Toms. Love it!

Seeing this dude perform in person is life changing and highly recommended.

Open handed playing also helps develop your left hand (if that's your weaker arm) think about all those years you played hi hat with your right hand consistently doing eights, triplets , and sixteenths making your right more dominant then left then switch up and see how much weaker your left hand is on hi hat. from my experience it's gotten my weak hand ALOT better.

I saw Simon live when he played with The Who in the 1989 tour! He was and is amazing! And I too play left-handed like he does!!!

When I started playing drums at 16, I noticed my left hand was significantly behind my right. So I started playing open handed, kinda in a way to 'speed up' my left as it would have to play the hats. I'm now 37, and I'm still playing that way! I love it, and can play both 'right' and 'open' - and I frequently switch between the two.

The human octopus according to Mike Oldfield

Simon - I'm a HUGE fan of yours. I'm a beginner at 61 to learn how to play the drums. I think for a right-handed person, having the ride on the left next to your high hats is simply brilliant. I agree letting your left hand (weak hand) keep the tempo allowing your right hand (strong hand) do the fills is brilliant. I look at your set up and I can tell you've put a lot of thought on how you can maximize yourself to the drum kit. Simply amazing. Adding your recording and sound technical knowledge, you really impact the songs you play. Thanks so much for your videos on how-to play instruction. Still miss you NOT being with Toto, but I understand. Everything has a time. When the situation is right - for you - you might be with them again. Bottom line - Love ya

When I started taking lessons 20 years ago, my instructor taught me to play open handed and I am so glad he did. I have gotten a lot of compliments from drummers who saw me play saying they wish they could play open handed. It really does make it easier and more fun to play certain parts. I would start out just like Simon showed. I would practice back and forth between the hi hat and snare and another drum to the left of my hi hat. I highly recommend it to learn to play open.

Following Simon Philips, I've been playing open handed for years and also lead with the right all because I love Simon's playing. It really does open up a world of ideas without breaking the groove and it's fun to not be right hand dominant.

Simon is one of the only drummer's that is ambidextrous! !! love his groove. He was amazing when he was 18 yrs. old.

I didn't start playing until I was 39 as a hobby; after several years, I saw a video on open handed playing and it made sooo much sense! I decided to start at the beginning with one of my books and now, I can play open as well as right handed ... and I can even switch without breaking the groove! I'm not a great player by any means, but I'm saying it can be done if you desire to make the change. :)

He drums well ,he has cool hair, what else do ya need ?

makes perfect sense to play open handed with the amount of rhythms you could do with the right hand

Zounds! Simon has more talent in his one hand than I have in my entire body.....

i actually started playing open handed for a year or so when i was 12 and became obsessed with toto and simon philipps, it's amazing how the brain can learn new things like that when youre young.

Great drummer.....and a very humble and cool guy!

Honestly, in my opinion, the best drummer alive. His work with Toto is amazing. When he is not with them, the drummers struggle to keep up with his part. Keep up the great work Simon.

Has anyone ever seen Simon and Eric Idle in the same place at the same time?

Simon Phillips - you absolute freak. ❤️

He’s one the icons in drumming The young generation gotta listen and learn from these guys Your missing out on a lot

Always enjoyed Simon's playing - never realized he was this mellow, grounded genius.

mr. phillips you..are..AMAZING!!!!

1:32 “ A little bit tougher (to learn new trix) as you get older”... Neuro plasticity would argue that point !!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Brilliant... as one would expect of Simon Phillips. I've been playing with traditional grip for 50 years, so it might be a bit late for this old horse... but I've always taught my students matched-grip and open-handed playing. One thing in particular I teach is: once you've learned a groove or fill and are comfortable with it, then try it backward... then try it opposite-handed. If you can do that regularly, and apply it to all your playing, you open up your coordination options exponentially. Oh, and of course I recommend Simon Phillips videos as an excellent training tool... along with many other top-tier drummers.

You make it look so easy, love your humility. One of my favourite percussionists...

being a "righty" and playing the Rosanna shuffle open-handed? legend!

I loved Jeff Porcaro, but after being introduced to Simon, I became a fan of him too. He was great when I saw him in Toto concerts. Lots of love and best wishes to Simon!

Simon should so make a new masterclass dvd just demonstrating different beats, signatures, solos, recording etc in his studio like these!

Simon Phillips is hands down one of the best drummers period. I myself am a left handed drummer but for the past 5 plus years I have been leading alot with my right hand and foot. I can do bass drum patterns with my right foot and then switch back to my left foot. It's a fun challenge to learn how to play with different approaches.

at 3:00 is the secret to understanding Simon Phillips' style. Smooth groove.

Saw Simon years ago live playing with Jeff beck one hell of a drummer brilliant

Great drummer. Love the fact that he played on Judas Priest's "Sin After Sin" album.

One of the best drummers in the World.

Love his playing on Beck's There & Back

he's so smooth and effortlessly musical... a master.

Not only is Simon one of the all time greats, he seems like he's a really awesome person as well............

Gotta love Simon.

Who gives this a thumbs down??? This guy is a musical/drumming Genius!!!

Was introduced to Simon's amazing playing by way of 801, became fascinated by his approach and began exercises on my own like 2:32. His personality and musical talent are truly inspirational.

"Maybe I'd be a better drummer." Uhh...is that possible? I mean...you're Simon Phillips.

Truly amazing. A genius behind the drumkit.

Never heard this drummer before (except one tune with Buddy Rich big band). But he obviously has good taste, a nice swing feel, and pretty impressive technique.

lots of great drummers out there , love Simons playing with the Who in 1989, hard to fill in Moonie's shoes but he did pull it over...love it

Sin after Sin LP! Great stuff, great ability....Thanks Simon

I picked up the open handed playing technique in the nineties after seeing Louie Weaver of Petra playing that way. It really does free up the right hand to make magic on the rest of the kit.

I'm not buying it...Simon was clearly gifted with 2 right hands. Incredible balance no matter what he plays with what hand.

I've been playing open-handed for almost 40 yrs. I am a lefty, but that's not why I play open-handed. I play that way because my left hand was by the hi-hats and that's what I figured was easiest! then I began taking lessons after about 2 yrs of banging on the kit to Cheap Trick, Zeppelin & Sabbath records....my drum teacher said that if it works, keep it up!

Did he say ..maybe he could have been a better player if ???? Is that possible to be better then he is now ? Hardly think so..such technical perfection

One of the Greatest Drummers of all time !!!!!!!

Interesting side effect of having the HH lower is that it's easier to play bead-on-top as he's doing here, rather than shank-on-side. Simon's HH playing has sounded cool in a number of recordings and this might be part of the reason for his sound. Another interesting side effect of open handed playing for me was not only how the 'backbeat hand' learns to do things that the 'cymbal hand' usually does, but also the reverse. I found my right was not as good as my left at things like rimshots, ghost notes, the timing of the backbeat, etc. It dawned on me that it wasn't just about my better hand vs. worse hand, but at least part of it was about specialization...

the most talented drummer in all history!!!

One of the all-time greats. Catch him in concert with Hiromi if you can.

Great drummer. The beauty of him is al of him.

One of the greats, my drum teachers favourite drummer!

I ended up getting the same 83 Artstar Cordia from a neighbor moving. What an amazing sounding kit. The toms are a giant, but it sounds incredible.

‘Maybe i could have been a better drummer’...

Amazing that single ply tom tom heads can sound so good with excellent tuning!

2:12 Are you kidding me Simon? ;-)

Thank you Simon !!!! I used to be a one dimensional drummer until I saw this video a few years ago. It has opened up the world.

Up there with the very BEST. Dont believe me? Listen to Smallcreep's Day - especially Out Into The Daylight. Total CLASS

Simon Philips is an INCREDIBLE DRUMMER !!! Amongst the greateast !

first time I hear this man speak, and I am stunned ....this is a totally nice man! I am impressed, not for drumming, as I don't know a thing about that..but this is just a great person..

It's amazing that you play open-handed. I suspect not every person or drummer can play with both right-handed method and left-handed-method.

As humble as he is talented. I find this SO impressive in a musician. He seems like an awesome guy.

Simon Phillips is a titan.

Simon is an absolutely brilliant drummer, and definitely one of the very best in the world! :)

Love it! After many, many years I’m getting back into drumming (wish I had never stop) and its refreshing to see these videos. Wish I could play that well.

I loved Simon's work with Mike Oldfield. He's an amazing player and comes across as a really nice guy too.

Great attitude drumming and seems like a humble guy. Easy to thumbs up.!

This is why his double strokes and sticking are top-notch. He has no weakness, and his kick drum is underrated. His kick foot is wild too.

thank you for your message SP🥁💯🙏

The more great drummers that I watch, the more I am becoming convinced that I need to learn open hand drumming. Should have learned it ten years ago, but oh well. Later is better than never.

Really nice hearing from him on this topic. I started this way from day 1, and while what he says is true, outright speed on the hat is a challenge as there's seemingly no room for the Moller technique as I understand it; the left hand (in my world) is cramped in proximity to the hat, thus limiting hot tempos. I'd enjoy intelligent thought on this.

Everything about this man is just awesome.

I’m mixed hand dominiant, nearly ambidextrous, so this makes so much more sense to me as well, much more so than the “right-hand” playing my instructors forced upon me. Now, decades later, I’m pulling out the old set(now called a kit, as I understand it) and doing it MY way, the way I wanted to decades ago.it’s amazing that because the majority are right-handed, they have created a one size fits all method, regardless of one’s abilities. I’d like to think things have changed since the 80’s, but I doubt it. I imagine instructors are still insisting their students play in the one-size fits all “right-handed” method.

Super enjoyable to watch. Great drumming and a great personality too.

Yay! I'm right footed and left handed....I play opened handed but can switch when I need to. Awesome video

Love his work with The Who and Toto, incredible drummer

I like the way his head bobs around when he plays.🙂

Simons drumming on Mike Oldfields Crises is phenomenal, and I was lucky enough to see him with Toto 😃

He's a professor of drumzzz. Hes playing is magical and incredible. Thanks my master ;) I'm waiting to see you with protocol II :)

He's one of the best drummer.

Absolute legend.

Open-handed playing makes so much more sense to me. And I'd even say that the "normal" setup most people have is (and was when it was first "invented") a compromise in many ways. If you start to think about it (at least when I do) you start with with your feet. Most right handed players have better right foot so bass drum has to go there and snare between the legs so both hands can play it. Makes sense so far. Here comes the "problems". Where would you naturally like to play your right hand (as it's also better than your left hand) with which you can play faster and more complex stuff? On your right side. And there the ride cymbal usually is. Now whne people started to play with a hihat there was the problem of where to put it. I'd guess that most people would like to play it on their right but the hardware doesn't allow that (nowadays it does, but back then didn't) because right foot is on the bass drum and left foot is the only one free to control it. So it has to go on the left side. Now you have to decide with which hand you're going to play it. Playing the "normal" way restricts you in so many ways imo. That very example Simon describes here that if you wanted to play the toms inside the groove, the normal way you can't comfortably do that. Open-handed absolutely zero problem. All that said I think the most "intuitive" setup is Mike Mangini's. Firstly he has basically every drum and cymbal one can have and need on both sides so no restrictions on what are you paying, you always have that cymbal or drum on a side you can hit it. He also has them in symmetrical pattern so everything is on the same place on both sides and he practically has complete normal drumset on both sides. Of course this type of drum set is a pain to set up and expensive as you have to have double amount of stuff. And the normal setup isn't that bad as we've all used to playing it and adapted pretty well.

He is so beyond awesome!

When a player opens up his game and does the kinds of things that Simon Phillips does, there is a word for that : Genius. Good show, Mr. Phillips.

Wow... that intro groove was beautiful.

I can say I have never been blown away more from watching any drummer play . I dont watch anyone else but the drummer 99% of the time. When people would ask me who my favorite drummer is I absolutely tell them Simon Phillips. I believe Simon is in a class unto himself and it is absolutely that he plays left handed on a right handed kit and it is awe inspiring to watch him play. He is fluid and smooth . I swear I witnessed this guy levitate when he was doing some of those rolls when he played for The Who Alpine Valley 1989 ish... To this day I have never seen anyone close. Sadly because Simon didn't tour with The Who after that tour when Ringos son started touring with them I was so upset I never went and saw The Who again... 🤦🏻‍♂️ I love Neil Peart , Bonham and all the other more famous drummers, My vote since that night has been Simon Phillips . Have you heard him play with Toto 😏

I love his style.

I am coming out of retirement , I have been influenced by Simon's video's to play open handed which I am going to try, wish me luck.

Simon is one of the only drummer's that is ambidextrous! !! love his groove.

I love this guy! He's realy down to earth and far away from any rockstar attitudes. A real humble master of the arts!!!

I think it shows a very logical approach to free up the right hand to go wandering plus how strong is his left hand now!

Simon is such an amazing player. Saw the tour with The Who doing Tommy. Blew my mind.

Simon Phillips rules!

He played on a Judas Priest album when he was only 19 years old.

"Uncrossed (hands) playing" (I prefer this terminology): the "secret weapon" of Simon Phillips (see also Billy Cobham and Dave Weckl). More possibilities because of real ambidexterity and more hitting places without crossing the arms (more easy in the muscular aspect, but not mind aspect: mark of the master players!). Bravo and thank you for explanations Simon! A lot of work in perspective indeed! Admiration from a French drum teacher and author.