Has tradition been holding drummers back for 100+ years?

So what about people learning drums for the first time?

So lets take 100 first time players.Half play cross,and half play open.How do you divide them.Half lefty,half righty...no you can't because leftys are only about 10% of the population.How about left? right dominant.As a shooting instrustor,I can tell you that most shooters of Asian decent ,are strongly right handed,but left eye dominant.Thats just a fact.How do you address that.?

Who will be the instructors,what's their training,background?Are they openhanded or crosshanded.What is some of these instructoers were trained by the famous Freddy Gruber,a big proponent of traditional playing and Mohler.

AAhh.Another the new way is better way ,by saying we've all been held back all these years,by playing a traditional method.

If that were true,then guys like Simon Phillips,Lenny White and a few others,would be on a totally different level,than the rest of us,but thats not true ....is it?

Those guys have been playing open handed,for DACADES,and although,they are world class drummers in their own right,I can see limitations and benefits in both approaches.

Sorry,I just can buy into the whole " tradition has been holding us back" statement.Lets dive into matched vs., traditional,French vs.German,less is more,more is more,and more is less also.

Then we can transition to birch,vs.maple,vs.poplar,vs.mahogany,vs,cocobola,vs.bubinga,vs,carbon fiber,vs,acrylic,vs.fiberglass,vs wood/fiberglass hybrid.

Then ply vs,solid,vs.stave,vs extruded,vs cast,vs.hollowed out logs.

It really comes down to what someone thinks is better,and then seeking to somehow,quantify,something,thats NOT quantifiable.Kind of like using a chart,to plot,which is the best drummer on the panet thing.

Horse hockey.Play the way you feel the most comfortable.Play in a way ,that suits YOUR style.Forget all this new is better nonsense,and trying to unseat the old guard bull.

New is just that ..new,NOT better,and usually recylced if you just do some research.

Steve B
 
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I think I might know where OP is coming from. I have been playing a semi-symmetrical kit for almost 20 years and regardless of its size, there is always a central "core" involving the remote hats and snare being more or less directly in front of me.

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I tend to stick with tradition as far as left to right tom setups, but that has as much to do with a certain Zappa drummer as many here probably know, and my obsession with rows of tiny toms tuned to a scale. That's a little harder to do with a Mangini-style apex setup having already worked out the mechanics of a double row piccolo tom arrangement.

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However, I don't think of being held back as a matter of setup as much as attitude. I have argued with enough drummers at gigs and whatnot who have this mindset that anything they find abnormal is just crap or a gimmick, or any variation of "Buddy Rich would have..." (can we start invoking Godwin's Law on that one?). If anything is going to hold us back as drummers, musicians and artists...it's going to happen in relation to our closed-mindedness about the instrument and the art that it serves.

The art is ultimately where it's at. Having some drummer opining willy-nilly about the things he finds "wrong" with my setup is like walking up to a painter and bitching about his use of a fan brush when EVERYBODY knows you use a stiff, round brush for that. Granted, a Crescent wrench turns a bolt better than a claw hammer, but I'm not slamming a guy for using his wrench to tap something in on the fly. Your art. Your tools.

Also, it took us a hundred years just to get HERE. It may take another hundred before the instrument evolves away from its founding traditions...if at all.
 
I think it’s time for me to step back and accept my faults here. I was reading over all my comments and many of you were right, I did sound like I was pushing my thoughts on everyone. That was not my intention and not what I was trying to say but looking at it objectively that’s how it came across and I am truly sorry for that.

With Love:
Zackie_1
 
I think it’s time for me to step back and accept my faults here. I was reading over all my comments and many of you were right, I did sound like I was pushing my thoughts on everyone. That was not my intention and not what I was trying to say but looking at it objectively that’s how it came across and I am truly sorry for that.

With Love:
Zackie_1

Yeah, OK you came on strong and were a little pushy, But your underlying point was well received by me.
You helped me realize how I can free up my playing style by repositioning my setup.

Thank you


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