And Carter Beauford is an whole other level of left lead grooves. It does open up opportunities you don't have with that crossover. It's also nice when my left can do everything my right can, just in case the right is tied up doing something. And vice versa.
A thing I've messed about with to strengthen my hands which I sometimes play both at the same time or separate is a simple line of 11-111-1111-11.there probaly Alot better ways but I enjoy & actually do it. Great vid thanks.
I would like to make a suggestion, if I may. To strengthen your weak hand, start using it more. Brush your teeth, open doors, move chopsticks over to weak hand, practice penmanship, chop vegetables, wash dishes, etc. With weak hand.
My right hand is my weak hand but as a little boy i didn't know any better so I started playing with a right-handed set open handed, and it worked alright.. but then few years back I decided to switch up to cross handed playing, to get my playing to be more balanced and it was pure torture! But now after few years of A LOT of practise I can say my right hand is, amazingly, really fooookin weak.. yeah. Hope this clip gives me some good insight as i am pretty sure it will, thanks Nate!
Don't sweat it man. I'm a lefty, too, and my drum teacher for the first 10 years taught me to play the 'regular', Right-hand-lead cross-handed way right from the get-go. Overall, I think I benefitted from that more than it hurt my playing, creativity, etc. on the kit. Now, my right hand is still very much the weaker one, but I think leading with your non-main hand forces you to kinda balance out your brain halves and the respective extremities they control, giving me an overall somewhat balanced set of limbs - at least in terms of independence, interdependence and control. Technique-wise, however, I still struggle to get my right hand on par with the left one. But I can honestly say that it has some huge benefits to have your strong hand as the snare hand. I like to think that my dynamic control on the snare, ghost notes, articulation and all that are pretty decent as a result of playing regular for ever while being a lefty.
@@OogaB0oga I'm in the same boat. The disadvantage is that I simply can't play 16ths on the hi-hat or ride as fast. Also, due to the weaker hand's inclination to follow rather than lead, if one of the other limbs rushes or drags a bit, it has a slightly greater potential to mess up the steadiness of my cymbal pattern.
@@jc3drums916 yeah, that part about the weak hand having a tendency to adapt to timing inconsistencies in the other limbs is definitely a problem I've been struggling with, too. Also, I noticed the same when it comes to dynamics: whenever I play an eight- or sixteen-note pattern in the right hand, on every accented backbeat note in the left hand, the right hand automatically hits harder. Although, to be fair, that might just be the hihat hand trying to get out of the way of the left hand on all the backbeats due to years of playing with the hihats too low in comparison to the snare height, when playing with my hands crossed :X
IMHO the best way to strengthen your weak hand is to improve its fine motor dexterity. As someone else already mentioned, start doing all kinds of everyday tasks with your weak hand - eating, brushing your teeth, throwing a ball, writing, etc. It doesn't cut into your practice time, and it will improve every aspect of your weak hand's technique. One drum-related thing I practiced that resulted in some surprising benefits was to alternate between wrist strokes and buzzes (like 8 of each, then 4, etc.), all with my weak hand. It was frustrating that, while my dominant hand never had any difficulty with it, and could stay completely relaxed at top speed, my weak hand would lock up and fail at the buzzes once things got remotely fast. My rudiments hadn't gotten any faster for several years, and I kid you not, after about 40 minutes, the max tempo of my doubles, paradiddles, and even my singles (wrist strokes, not finger) somehow increased 15-20 BPM (all as 16th notes). It made no sense to me why that would improve my singles, but it did, so I'm a firm believer in indirect benefits resulting from improving fine motor dexterity.
uncommon take, studying blast beats can improve your weak hand (specifically traditional, inverted trad, bomb blast (with left hand on snare)) You need some foot chops though to play them at a speed where the wrist/fingers come into play. You're basically playing single strokes or unison strokes at a fast tempo and with inverted or bomb blasts you are effectively leading with the left hand on the snare.
I've started practicing open handed religiously the past few months and, for me, it has fixed a few issues I've had with my weak hand and strong hand. It has also helped a lot with coordination and improvisation. It hasn't been a waste of time for me. It is also fun.
Good video. Personally, playing lead with the weaker hand is just as much a mental exercise than just rudimental rituals. You have to get comfortable mentally and physically to gain the confidence to make music.
Just to add a personal note on left hand improvement, I "awakened" mine through learning other rudiments, which through serious rigorous practice hinted me their distinct attack powers...I mean how they call for different volume levels. So that, and finally getting a grip on the moeller technique.
As a left-handed person who plays mostly right-handed and used to predominantly use the traditional grip on the left hand for a good 10-year period, I had always realized a weakness in my playing and that was my RH would not have the kind of finesse my LH had. My RH was also much more proficient with Moeller technique and push-pull (in overhand/matched grip) while my LH in matched grip couldn't get past the basics of either techniques. The only way my LH could catch up was to give it more work i.e. playing open-handed. After 2 years of on-and-off open-handed practice, I realized my LH is now stronger with more stamina in matched grip, while my RH not only can play with more finesse, but can even keep time better when playing offbeat patterns e.g. samba bell pattern. Truly... My RH weakness in keeping time with samba bell pattern was accidentally fixed from playing open-handed. Also, I even just learned lately that Thomas Lang can play open-handed and he advocates it. This is truly humbling and I will never regret learning open-handed. Sure, my hands are not mirrored and I would never want them to be. But having a weak left or right in any scenario is crippling (my RH samba bell pattern being one example of how sometimes one can have a weakness without even realizing it).
if you play extreme metal (and there are plenty of videos of extreme metal drummers playing covers/playthrough), you'll notice that the weak hand is operating almost as effective as the strong hand. For instance, playing in unison, blast beats, cross sticking (yes there are some metal drummers using that!) require a solid, good technique in the weak hand as well as A LOT of practice, cause otherwise you simply can't do all the crazy stuff they do)) I'm lefty, but playing "righty" setup. My right hand is the leading hand, but not my strong hand, so in fact right is my weak hand and it goes vice versa with the left hand - it's not my leading, but I perform exercises WAY better with my left that with my right.
I suppose if you play guitar right-handed. Fret with the left hand, then it may not be practical to switch, and learn to play guitar left-handed. Unless you just want to be able to do that.
Even though that's true, there's other stuff that comes in between the grooves, and that stuff tends to fall apart when you don't have left hand lead and left hand independence/interdependence. And practicing left hand lead helps that. Like, my left hand is awesome at a million little ghost notes... you know which hand sucks at all those little ghost notes? Yeah, my right, my dominate hand doesn't work the way my weak hand does. Just like I'm pretty good at right handed guitar... but left handed.. I'm a complete beginner, no talent. But it's more realistic to say you should be able to do that on the drums. I've practiced the grooves, I've got the groove, I need the maturity and muscle memory my right hand has in my left and vice versa, you may not play that way, but you should be able to. It helps in the spaces between. It also flushes out stuff you wouldn't play as a groove, because there's more than just verses and choruses in music.
I agree with most of what you say here except the idea you should be able to play left handed on the drums. Yes the hands have two different roles, but being able to play left hand lead is different than learning to play left handed. Playing left handed is redundant, but strengthening and leading is essential in good technique. Like you say each hand has a different role, but if you learn how to develop your technique for each hand the strength just comes. Watch Steve Holmes here and see if he has the need to play left handed, he has developed his left hand to fulfill its role in this application. I don’t think it would be the best use of his time to do the same thing playing it left handed. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IBVigqyqMr4.html
This reminds me of modern approach to teaching kids, things that they are more passionate about,less math and grammar, and teaching them in a way that tailor fits them..which I vehemently believe is seriously narrow minded and short sighted..you never know where your journey will lead, what tools you will need, or let's face it if our passions shift with the changing winds...there is more than a little something to be said for a well rounded approach, I believe the biological sciences back me up on this as do the more recently discovered neural network and cognitive sciences, i.e there's a reason ppl are discovering or rediscovering body weight exercises compared to weights, bc of isolation. Yes if you want huge biceps you want to isolate the muscles but they are connected to every other muscle directly or indirectly and if you want good looking biceps that you can ALSO do 1 pull up with(there are muscle heads at the gym who can't do 1 wide front grip pull up, bc all they do is isolate, and neglect that everything is connected), you never know how how your abs will affect your pull ups,..wait, wah? Yes your abs are very much a part of the reverse grip pull up which also works those famous biceps, so while the millennial isn't passionate about his abs or thinks he needs to be taught in a way to his liking(reads-while playing video games eating ding dogs and smoking whatever the vape shop had in this week,bc delta 8 wasn't cutting it) he might not be fully developed yet, and there might be adults who have more experience than him, or her, speaking of which the her never wants to have kids no way no how..wait..she's pregnant, loves the guy and is going to keep it, now needs all those lessons she brushed off in the past years but bc it didn't fit into her present-and very temporary- m.o., she didn't pay attention. Now the baby inside her, the father and especially the grandma wants her to learn and retain all those "unnecessary" lessons from years past, an old school teacher was suggesting might be useful someday and best to have more tools, more useful tools in your box than not right? Carrying a round a light tool box might satiate our daily quench for the fact we know what's best for us, but when you only carry light things your muscles atrophy, do i need to point out the connections to drumming metaphors? This is your wheelhouse i didn't think so
I have nerve damaged left arm from motorcycle accident that crushed brachial plexus. This happened in 88' I am 56, have compensated ever since. 10 years ago had surgery on right hand to remove a bone and screw other bones together with 4 screws because of arthritis. I played for money for years before, during and after. Never stop, never get discouraged, constantly learn and expand interests. I can only imagine if I would have had You Tube in the early eighties. Exercises on practice pad have become part of my practice. Love the channel.
Great lesson, Nate! Always enjoy and appreciate your videos, as you pass on valuable information and help others to improve. Thanks for another excellent edition! Happy drumming, everyone!
How can you possibly hope to create good quality sounds with both hands if the approaches and paths of motion are fundamentally different? Like I get that the left hand has a separate skill set, and needs different work. But it still needs to mirror the approach and motion of the right, and that’s achieved by having them play the same thing so you can compare them in real time. So playing rudiments left hand lead super fast and working the left hand to be just as monstrous may not be helpful, but a degree of mirror is definitely necessary to making good clear sounds when playing. Also beyond the physical, left hand lead rudiments and stuff like that are brain teasers, like micro time work it forces you to think different, you don’t just build your left hand but the left brain And the pathways between the sides. And that is actually helpful. Your exercises breaking down the left hand skills, do not address that at all
It's not so much the form as the function he was on about. Yeah, you need to have even form and technique to produce consistent, even sounding strokes but obsessivey reproducing what the dominant hand is doing won't get you to where you want to be with your actual playing because you won't use it in a musical context that often. It's the whole principle of focus on what will get your playing up to speed as quickly as possible (80/20 principle, right?). And that's not to say don't bother with those exercises, just shift focus to what's really useful. That's what I took away from it, anyway.
Strengthening your weak hand has absolutely nothing to do with drumming. You can play weak hand lead, an extra 40% of technique time on the weak hand, but that will never get them balanced. If you use the weaker hand more for everyday tasks, it will fix the imbalanced "executive function" and will coordinate and integrate your weak hand.
I really think it’s about what you play and your abilities, Gene Hoglan one of my favorite will switch hands and feet all the time. Yes your weak hand and foot should be as good as your strong side. The way someone else does it is not always right for you. To become the best is to know what your good at and practice what your not good at.
I think this is really two different things, yes you should strengthen your left hand, which in reality it will always be weaker, but to go about it with the idea of whatever you do, you have to do it equally as well from the other side, is more of a coordination thing and sort of a waste of time. Yes there are open players like Simon Phillips and others but it just takes time away from your overall practice. At a Dave Weckl clinic someone asked him what he thought about open hand playing to avoid crossing hands on the hi hat, his answer was why waste time learning that while he could just add another hi hat on his right side. Would a guitar player flip his guitar around and try to play the opposite way? Sounds silly but it’s a waste of time. The hands have two different roles, but like I said in the beginning it’s two different things, strengthening and coordination.
I listened to this whilst practising a bossa nova groove. When Nate played the jazz patterns it got real weird. Bossa nova layered over jazz - new genre for people with tons of skill and are easily bored? Also, I like percussion and I like both hands to be strong. For pure drum kit players I totally agree on the points made.
wow! i'm a total beginner, and i never took lessons despite playing out with a group. PROBLEM IS: i started out playing backwards (i'm right handed but play hihat with LH). I've decided I want to start taking lessons, but figure the first thing my teacher will tell me is to switch hands so i've been working at playing that way and it's so hard. looking forwards to trying these techniques. For me, the hardest thing is the precise control on the snare with my LH, getting the little flams and ghost notes and rolls is really really hard for me right now
Timely video again! I started working on the Gaddiments book to help address weaknesses I was not aware of, and it has done that from the beginning. One of the weaknesses I noticed right away was my weak hand lead, so I developed my own exercises to address that. However, I started thinking about the point of working my weak hand that hard, and I came to the same conclusion as in your video. I’m not changing what I am doing yet because one of my goals is to play the exercises in Gaddiments as well as I can, but I no longer have as a goal to play the exact same thing on the kit with my left hand. I’m not Simon Philips, and I never will be, so I think having the “right” goal in mind with working my weak hand is important.
Exactly, who has that kind of time? And if one were to close their eyes they wouldn’t know what hand is doing what. Time needs to be maximized as far as practice goes. Get the strength training on the practice pad with finger and wrist exercises.
Is it natural for Australians to tell everyone else what they can and can’t find worthy of attention? There’s got to be something to unpack there. Jacob would be angry if he saw how I view playing the drums lol
