Should I retrain myself to be a right handed drummer?

Question

I'm in a slightly strange situation. I have been playing the piano ever since I was a kid, and have in recent years taken an interest in drumming. Not having consistent access to a real drum kit, I got into the habit of performing rhythmic passages using alternative means (my desk, my body, the car's steering wheel, etc.). This has gone on for several years, and when I finally sat down next to a real drum kit, I was pleasantly surprised to find my practicing translates well to a real kit, and I can perform and maintain fairly non-trivial rhythms on it.

The problem is that for some reason, it seems I self-trained unknowingly as a left-handed drummer, even though I'm normally right handed. That is, even though my dominant hand is my right hand, when I play a regular (right-handed) drum kit I find it significantly easier to use a left-handed hands assignment, i.e. when playing a basic rock beat, I uncross my arms, hitting the snare with my right hand and the hi-hat with my left; hitting the ride requires crossing them again which is slightly awkward. Additionally, since the pedals cannot be exchanged in the same manner, I end up doing essentially left-handed but right-footed (?) drumming: right and left feet do bass and hi-hat respectively, while right and left hands do snare and hi-hat (instead of the other way around).

When I try to play the kit "correctly", it feels like taking quite a few steps back and I can't do half of what I can easily achieve when my hands are switched.

Now that I have somewhat more regular access to a (right handed) drum kit, I need to make a decision: I can either continue to play and practice as a left-handed-right-footed drummer, building on the foundation of what I've already trained for; or I can try to unlearn everything and start from scratch as a normal right-handed drummer.

So, my question to drummers and drum teachers: is it even possible to unlearn something like this? Would using this strange layout limit my progress in the future? Conversely, would I gain anything from switching now, despite the price of retraining my hands to do the opposite of what they're used to?

Answer 1

Avish,

My answer agrees with Ariel and SRiss but I'd like to add my own experience.

I've had drum lessons for about a year, during which I've played left-handed right-footed the whole time. Like the other answers say, it doesn't make any difference in the long run because in the long run you'll be ambidextrous anyway. So no, it won't limit your progress in the future.

About switching to right-handed. In my experience it would be a waste of time. From your question, the only discomfort you have is moving weirdly to hit the ride. Well why don't you just practice hitting the ride with the right hand and leave what's good the way it is?

That's just what I did when I played the drums. Eventually I could play the 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 on the hi-hat with the left hand and then switching to playing it on the ride with the right hand, no problems. Just watch that the snare sounds the same with both hands.

I disagree with Ariel that switching hands before a break is any bad. If you're used to playing right handed or left handed only, that may be discomfortable. But if you're used to changing what function each hand performs all the time, then you won't even know you're switching hands, it's just natural.

Short answer: Keep up what's good, adapt what's not. You're surely not going to have any future problems for it.

Answer 2

What you've learned can certainly be unlearned. It just takes a lot of time and patience. I would keep building what you already having going for you and make sure you make progress.

I am left-handed, but when I started there was only a right-handed kit to play on. I learn that from the start and it has always made sense for me. For the past 10 years though I've played open-handed. To me it's the most natural way. I can't find a single reason to cross your harms. That means you're locking one under the other, greatly limiting its abilities.

If I were you, I would keep leading with the left hand. You can have a hi-hat AND ride on the left side of your kit, which means you can play pretty much every beat without switching the leading hand or crossing over.

The only problem I could see you facing is fills. If you lead with your left hand, but a normal fill would go from left to right (rack toms to floor tom, smallest to largest) then that might be awkward to play, as the right hand is always moving "ahead" of the left one. But if fills are natural for you to play on a right-handed tom set up, you're good to go.

As for the bass drum, whatever feels comfortable for you. If you lead with left hand and right foot, it might take a bit more time reading notation/doing exercises where these things matter, but that's about the only "problem" I see you might be facing.

You might want to consider practicing also leading with your right hand, enabling more freedom, but it does take time. Still, I would prefer trying to build both hands as equal over forgetting what you do now and starting from scratch.

Happy drumming!

Answer 3

Avish, what you've described is "open-handed drumming", which, although it's not traditional, is nevertheless gaining acceptance - Billy Cobham's been doing it for about 40 years.

Answer 4

I’ve been playing the drums for roughly 14 years now, and can remember that when I was first being taught, my instructor told me to sit down on his kit, which was set up for right handed players, and to get into a position that feels most comfortable. Being left handed, I naturally got into the open handed position. We set up the ride cymbal on the left side of the kit, and the crash on the right, and I’ve been playing this way ever since. Ive always enjoyed the fact that I learned this way because it allows me to play comfortably, and since I’m used to a right handed kit, I can almost always jam on any kit I come across. If I go to the music store and want to jam, I can. If I want to jam on my friends kit, I can. Etc. This very reason is why I refuse to let my students learn on a left handed kit—because I know they’ll regret learning on a left handed kit when they want to join the jazz band, but the other two drummers learned how to play on a right handed kit, so it’s going to stay that way (Many other examples exist).

IMPORTANT: learning this way is only temporary. The student only stays comfortable when learning the basics. As they progress, this changes. As I believe someone said in the comments above, it is imperative that the student learns to become ambidextrous, allowing them to lead with both the left and right hand. If they learn a beat with their left on the hi-hat, right on the snare, then they need to relearn the beat vice versa. By making this a habit, though it may seem hard at first, and like you’re wasting time, you’ll shortly begin to realize that you are completely comfortable playing any beat while leading with either hand. It took me a long time before realizing that I myself should be practicing this way and am somewhat mad about the fact that I hadn’t been practicing this way from the beginning. If I had been, I’d be far more advanced than I am today. An example of why this is important is from an open handed player’s point of view. If I’m playing a funk groove with my left on the hi-hat and want to end the phrase with a nice fast, but tasteful groove, it is difficult to do so while leading with my left. My hands would cross and I’d be very limited. Because of this I lead the full with my right hand allowing me access to a much tastier full.

Overall, I believe all drummers should learn to lead with both hands, on a right handed kit.

Answer 5

I agree with SRiss. The fact that you have a "natural" tendency to do something doesn't mean this should be your ONLY way of doing it. However, since your strong arm is your right one, you want it free to improvise. Don't play in a way that necessitates switching hands before a break. Same goes for the right foot - the bass drum must be very agile and fast for some rhythms, and having only your left foot on the bass will make this much more difficult.

Altogether, I find that if you've played any instrument unprofessionally for a bit, learning how to play professionally means suffering through a month or two of annoying, simple, mindless drilling, and even taking a few steps back in your playing just so you can start moving forward in a more organized technique. You have to grit your teeth and bear it.

Lastly, do you have ear-plugs? Get a pair to save your hearing.

Answer 6

I'm a left hander who plays open handed on a right handed kit and I've recently been retraining to also play open handed when keeping the pulse on the right hand side of the kit (eg floor tom), as I was sometimes getting tangled up when playing fills in that situation.

I talked to my drum teacher about it (who is a normal right hander) and she reckons playing open handed all the time might even be a good thing as you aren't hunching in to play the hats. Good posture/form in drumming is all about keeping relaxed and having nice straight lines to things.

That said, I think crossing to play hats as a righthander is probably more comfortable than crossing as an (open handed) left hander to play the FT - the floor tom is normally way lower and your hands are more likely to clash.

Also if you want to do double handed stuff on the hi-hats you will need to learn to lead with your right when playing open handed (assuming snares on the backbeat), otherwise you'd need to use unusual sticking (like paradiddles or other use of doubles).

One of the things that's nice is you can quickly get to tom's + cymbals on the other side of the kit and easily get back to the snare without breaking up what you are doing on the ride + hats with your left hand.

It would be interesting to know what normal right handers consider to be awkward in their setup.

I think there are probably advantages and disadvantages to any style of play, I think the most important thing is to get a kick out of the process of learning, everything you do to try and make both hands work well in different scenarios is going to improve your playing loads aswell.

Answer 7

I know someone who did this. He was left-handed, but he learned to play drums right-handed (he started learning lefty but switched) so as to facilitate setting up the drums and borrowing equipment and whatnot. It's kind of a right-handed drummer's world, in a way. I asked him about it, and he just said "I didn't want to be that guy, you know, who has to set up all the drums lefty every time...". Anyway, that might be one good reason to learn right-handed.

Answer 8

I've been playing right handed drums, left on ride, right on snare. Now I'm learning jazz so when doing rolls around drums this set up doesn't make sense at all. I finally switched my drum set left handed. I have been doubting myself for a long time which way I should play. I started on my friends right handed drums so I started playing this way. It will take some time to get used to the foot setup.

Answer 9

I'm (normally) right-handed, however some things I'm more comfortable using my left hand (or foot, like soccer) - so initially on fills my hands would get confused about which hand should be where.

Until I realized that gives me the flexibility to go around the kit in ways that someone who only ever leads with one hand would have more difficulty with.

Just a little mindset change can go a long way in leapfrogging yourself into being the holy grail of an ambidextrous drumming legend!

Find the grooves and fills that work for you and you'll see great progress - good luck!