What should I do?!?

joedrumma

Junior Member
Hey yall today I went back to drumming and picked up right were I left off. As I posted before I'm left footed and that's still an issue for me.... My right leg can't do as much as my left. It's very weird... It's kinda like my left leg is gifted because with it I can do fast triplets and it's Anazing! Funny thing Is I mostly use my right leg for kicking and my left for like skating goofy i think? Well anyways I dont know how to setup my kit... Right now I'm leaving it the same and using my double bass pedal on my left foot... But what about my hi hat... While playing with my left foot I noticed I play a lot better and it's more controlled. Idk what to do... Should I continue to play left cause I can't seem to do triplets with my right. Please help! :)
 
You're going to hate me for this, but...practice! In fact this sounds like a bit of a gift because if you start to use your right foot for everything you'll pretty soon have two very strong feet, which is what everyone wants, ultimately.
 
That was my reaction too.

Sometimes people think that changing their setup or buying better gear will make them sound better. To a small extent, I suppose that's true. For most situations, I think it really comes down to practice.

Look at it this way. Nearly every day someone will post about how much they hate playing other people's kits, or the house kits, what have you. I usually like to play mine too, but my goal has always been to develop myself independent of the equipment. I shouldn't be relying on a specific pedal, setup or any of the particulars, I should be able to play the drums.
 
Usually a kit is set up to your dominant HAND. I myself am left handed AND footed, but i know plenty of people that are right hand/left foot and vice versa. The truth is, like mentioned above, you need to just practice, and regardless of whatever footed you are, you should have all limbs working equally as well.

For instance, i play guitar right handed. Left handed seems weird to me. I throw a dart with my left hand, play pool left handed, yet play golf and baseball right handed - doing all of these the opposite way seem weird to me, yet i have the ability to do all sorts of stuff the other way round. So practice is your answer.
 
By virtue of fact - the longer you practise something...the better you will get at it.
 
Do you play with crossed arms? Atleast, setup the kit as it feels comfortable. For example, place you bass in the middle in front of your stool, place the hat's to the right (if you're a left handed and footed person) If you're right handed and left footed, then just do as normally (hats to the left) Place the snare between your bass drum and the hats. The floor tom goes to the right (if you're right handed) and to the left (if you're left handed) The toms are mounted on the bass drum (essentially) and if you're left handed then the biggest rack tom is the the left, while the smallest to the right and vica versa if you're right handed.
 
You either set up the kit to a completely left handed kit, or completely right handed kit. A midway solution won't work very good... I've never seen it atleast.

Set it up as a right handed kit and play it.
Set it up as a left handed kit and play it.
What feels best? - Play that.
 
If you are going to play a double bass drum pedal, as others have said, practice until your right foot catches up. If you are going to use a single pedal, you may end up with a unique setup. Are you right or left handed. If you are left handed, you should set up the kit backwards from most drummers. If you are right handed, you have some interesting choices to make.

For example, left to right: bass, snare, and hats. You can put the other cymbals and toms where it is comfortable. Good luck.
 
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