Just how strong is your weaker hand?

[scriabin]

Professionals might work to be totally ambidextrous, which is the ideal; but for amateurs, hobbyists, garage band drummers, and weekend semi-pros---how strong does your weaker hand need to be? (depending on what style you play, of course)

As a newbie of 6 months I could barely free stroke with my left hand. Now, after Mark Wessels vids on Vic Firth and Stick Control practice my left hand is now 80% - 85% of my right, which I could improve if need be.

Veteran drummers, could you be candid with us starting-out-drummers and share with us just how much weaker is your weaker hand compared to your stronger-- 90%? 95%? and do you really bother with improving your weaker hand constantly? Could you also identify the musical style you specialize in and whether you're an amateur, semi-pro, or teacher/pro drummer?

Thanks for any and all responses.

[Casper "DrPowerStroke" Paludan]

Professionals might work to be totally ambidextrous, which is the ideal; but for amateurs, hobbyists, garage band drummers, and weekend semi-pros---how strong does your weaker hand need to be? (depending on what style you play, of course)

As a newbie of 6 months I could barely free stroke with my left hand. Now, after Mark Wessels vids on Vic Firth and Stick Control practice my left hand is now 80% - 85% of my right, which I could improve if need be.

Veteran drummers, could you be candid with us starting-out-drummers and share with us just how much weaker is your weaker hand compared to your stronger-- 90%? 95%? and do you really bother with improving your weaker hand constantly? Could you also identify the musical style you specialize in and whether you're an amateur, semi-pro, or teacher/pro drummer?

Thanks for any and all responses.
I would answer your question with one f my own: how good do you want your weaker had to be? This field has a lot of delusions, and one of them is that when you can free stroke equally with your right and left, your weak hand is about as good as your strong. This is not so. Try doing control strokes and you will see the HUGE difference. Other exercises will further expose the weakness, or as I like to call it, the delightful potential for growth, in this area.

Under Dom Famularo I spent 100s of hours on this and I found that even when I could do a particular exercise as well with my weak hand as my strong, at some slow tempo, it never felt the same. And that is just the way it is. I have grown tremendously as a drummer by paying attention to my weak hand, and I would consider it an absolutely worthy pursuit to play nothing but your weak hand for several months, because you will play things you never dreamed of. Same with your weak foot (hihat or bass drum). Hope this helps. DPS

[jazzsnob]

Well, for this classification I'll consider myself a semi-pro. The one concept that has helped me overcome my weaker left hand has been to simply not giving it extra slack because it's "weaker." I don't play open handed often and I don't spend extra time on it, I just work it until it's as good as my right hand hand at whatever exercise I'm doing.

It seems that people almost force themselves to have weak hands, because they do an exercise where the weak hand isn't as good as the right, and they move on anyway.

As soon as you always make sure your left is JUST AS SOLID as your right on every exercise you do, you'll see that the weaker hand thing is more in your head than anything.



edit: the styles I specialize are jazz, art rock, and post-hardcore weirdness

[h3r3tic]

Well, for this classification I'll consider myself a semi-pro. The one concept that has helped me overcome my weaker left hand has been to simply not giving it extra slack because it's "weaker." I don't play open handed often and I don't spend extra time on it, I just work it until it's as good as my right hand hand at whatever exercise I'm doing.

It seems that people almost force themselves to have weak hands, because they do an exercise where the weak hand isn't as good as the right, and they move on anyway.

As soon as you always make sure your left is JUST AS SOLID as your right on every exercise you do, you'll see that the weaker hand thing is more in your head than anything.



edit: the styles I specialize are jazz, art rock, and post-hardcore weirdness

amen bro ;)
20 chars :P lol

[Deathmetalconga]

I am right-handed and my left hand is at least 95 percent equal to my right. I have always played open, so in drumming my left hand works harder than my right. I have also trained my left hand to use the mouse and other things, taking some strain off my right hand and avoiding injury. I play hand percussion - congas, tablas, djembe, and other things - so my hands really get a workout.

I think it is preferable for the arms and hands to be as equal in strength as possible. I agree with jazzsnob, the thing about strength difference is mostly in one's head. There are a few activities that involve the dominant hand more (hand writing, eating, using tools, playing some instruments) but there are many more activities that involve both equally (typing, driving, exercising, playing some instruments).

Unless you are a circus freak who deliberately builds up one side of the body more, most people's hands and arms are already very close in strength.

[Ironcobra]

i dont think its really a thing about practice. i think its more of a mental thing, being able to control the left is just simply harder.....right before your about to play just kinda think about the movement of your left hand.....THIS SOUNDS DUMB but it works for me

also, try doing this really fast.....instead of RRLRRLRRLRRLRRL try LLRLLRLLRLLRLLR

if you do that fast enough your left will be just as good

[klejton]

I'm not so sure if it's a mental thing. If you're right-handed, it's logical you'll use your right hand in everyday actions more often, thus making it dominant over the left hand (or vice versa if you're left-handed). Evening them out is just a matter of practice.
My left hand isn't that much weaker when it comes to raw strength, but it lacks precision and control (about 50% compared to the right hand), so when I play traditional grip on the snare drum, the stick tends to bouce around instead of hitting a single spot. I simply lack the feeling for the stick in that hand, so it kinda cramps into an open position.
However, since I started practicing more often and paying more attention to control rather than speed, I've noticed some progress. More precisely, it's not as stiff as it used to be and I'm able to control it easier. It's still miles away from the right hand, but as long as there's progress, I can't complain.

[Class A Drummer]

The funny thing is with drumming, my dominant hand is slower. I can go alot faster with my left hand than right. Its kinda funny, if i ever go as fast as i can with both hands, the singles turn into flams, then into hits that are toghether, then back into a normal single stroke role (then repeat).

[figure_02]

My left hand really suck. I think it's 75% of the right. But recently I've started to play lot open-handed, hope to see some progress.

[JCM]

I do not think you can get your left hand to fully be like your right hand, after all they are separate limbs. However, that being said, you can get them to a very similar level.

[GRUNTERSDAD]

Maybe this will help:

Hit the drum in 8th notes and let your sticks bounce aome where around 4 times and gradually press harder to increase the speed of the roll. It takes practice but you will build up speed as you go along.

from a previous post.

[jonescrusher]

Being left handed but playing on a righty setup meant that sooner or later i'd have to face up to the fact that getting both hands equal would be totally necessary if i was to be able to play well. It took me a decade to accept that fact rather than continue trying to adapt to a left lead all the time, but in the last 18 months i've knuckled down and concentrated. On the practice pad i suppose my right hand is not far off equal strength to my left, but there are still areas of playing that are weak. This situation has left some advantages such as having better control on the snare drum for ghost noting than many RH players may naturally have.

[k3ng]

weaker hand? what weaker hand?










You get the point.

[Mr. Pasquini]

I can do anything I have to, it just takes a little more practice with the left hand. That's my approach. It's all in your head, man.

[scriabin]

I guess 'weaker' is a misnomer--how about 'less-coordinated hand.'

More specifically, I'm working through the Tommy Igoe Grooves and I couldn't help but notice they are all set up so the stronger hand is more busy than the less-coordinated one (hi-hat eighth notes, swing rhythms on the ride for jazz, the 'connective tissue' he talks about are in the stronger hand).

So my thoughts were, "Gee, maybe drummers just accept a 'less-coordinated hand' as a given and compensate by purposely driving the grooves with the strong hand."

Any comments? Am I mistaken about the grooves being strong-hand friendly?

Also, considering your responses so far, I'm going to continue working on left hand coordination until it equals or is 98% of my right.

Thanks all.

[lstardrums]

i dont think you have to be a pro to feel a need to work on your weak hand. fortunately for me when i first started i learned to play open handed so my left and right developed pretty evenly (although due to a lack of focus on technique, my left hand is slightly weaker, but im working on it). the only problem i ever seem to have is that ghosting with my left hand doesnt feel as natural as ghosting with my right.

[sir_willy]

Its strong enough to keep me currently satisfied. I can comfortably switch between open and crossed.

[cnw60]

wax on, wax off - young grasshopper....

I'm in the same boat as Jonescrusher - a natural lefty on a right-handed setup, so I've been forced from the beginning to work on my right hand.

[jonescrusher]

I guess 'weaker' is a misnomer--how about 'less-coordinated hand.'

More specifically, I'm working through the Tommy Igoe Grooves and I couldn't help but notice they are all set up so the stronger hand is more busy than the less-coordinated one (hi-hat eighth notes, swing rhythms on the ride for jazz, the 'connective tissue' he talks about are in the stronger hand).

So my thoughts were, "Gee, maybe drummers just accept a 'less-coordinated hand' as a given and compensate by purposely driving the grooves with the strong hand."

Any comments? Am I mistaken about the grooves being strong-hand friendly?

Also, considering your responses so far, I'm going to continue working on left hand coordination until it equals or is 98% of my right.

Thanks all.

Of course, this is why we talk of right- and left-handed set-ups; most drummers are right handed, so they set up the drums to accommodate that