Weak Left Hand. Can't Stroke Fast Enough?

T

takkatakka

Junior Member
I barely managed to single stroke on 140-145ish bpm (1/16). However, the song that i want to play is about 170 bpm fast and has many 1/16 fills. I think that my left hand is causing the problem, it's not "trained" enough because for all this year, i almost never play open handed.

What should I do to get that tempo?

A. Just exercise my left hand for a while.
Lift weights, stroke only with my left hand, etc

B. Do single strokes with both hands, but gradually increase tempo.
150 bpm for a week, and maybe 155 bpm next week...

C. Play bursts of strokes at 170 bpms

D. Slow down the song down and gradually increase tempo
Play like normal, try to do the fills, and maybe increase the tempo after a while

E. Use weights on my left hand when playing drums
I'm quite doubtful about this one. I think it may mess up when i'm done with weights.

So, what do you pros think?
 
takkatakka said:
stroke only with my left hand
Click to expand...


well duh....your right hand is on the mouse

sorry brother....couldn't resist

yeah....no substitute for practice

dont't worry about all that weight nonsense.....just work on your stroke

isolate your left hand to strengthen it....but play more hand to hand strokes than anything else....the idea is to have them even .....even in two ways..... evenly spaced, and an even sound at every velocity ......accents, taps, and everything in between

patience my friend
 
Ask yourself, can you play a single stroke roll at 170bpm? It doesn't have to be clean - can you play it? Is your leading hand in control?
I might get some stick for saying this from some of the other guys, but it might be that you have the speed, you just can't control it with your left hand. I found when I started out, high tempos were really hard but I'd play them anyway (I'd be very tense and working really hard) - and eventually I just learnt to be able to play them relaxed from doing that so much. That MAY help.

The SENSIBLE option would be to slow things down and maybe work on leading with your left hand, or work on your fulcrum, finger or moeller technique (ideally a natural combination of all of these things will come to you eventually without you having to think about it - moeller came with me because I found if I accented every beat, I could play 16th note rolls really really fast. Then years later I found out I was doing moeller with my right hand before I knew what it even was!). Try leading songs with your left hand on the hi hat as well, playing open-handed. Just play 8th notes with your left hand constantly, but come up with unusual accent patterns, and slowly build up the tempo.

Even after 9 years I still find lots of weaknesses in simple things like my left hand, and I'm sure there are pro drummers who have been playing for about three thousand years who still have these problems. The solution is to work on it with a mind for technique and stay relaxed, but at the same time don't think TOO MUCH and don't be afraid to work up a sweat and push yourself a little bit to get past your speed boundaries.

Practice practice practice practice, it's the only key.
 
Getting a weak hand as strong (and coordinated) as the strong hand is a problem nearly every drummer encounters. Some celebrate the differences, some strive for equality. It is THE most satisfying goal I've reached, equality. I have earned it though. I've put hundreds of hours in getting my weak hand equal.

Took me 8 years. I'm sure it can be accomplished in less time, I just worked on it at my leisure.

Driving with my strong hand and doing shuffle patterns with my weak hand, using a stick, on the very inside bottom of the steering wheel, (not the top, the bottom is closer to where your snare drum would sit) went a long way towards that goal.

I believe if you get a real heavy metal stick, and practice with that on a pad, it will build up your weak hand. Kinda like a runner running in sand to practice.
 
Talismanis said:
Ask yourself, can you play a single stroke roll at 170bpm? It doesn't have to be clean - can you play it? Is your leading hand in control?

....

The SENSIBLE option would be to slow things down and maybe work on leading with your left hand, or work on your fulcrum, finger or moeller technique (ideally a natural combination of all of these things will come to you eventually without you having to think about it - moeller came with me because I found if I accented every beat, I could play 16th note rolls really really fast. Then years later I found out I was doing moeller with my right hand before I knew what it even was!). Try leading songs with your left hand on the hi hat as well, playing open-handed. Just play 8th notes with your left hand constantly, but come up with unusual accent patterns, and slowly build up the tempo.

....

The solution is to work on it with a mind for technique and stay relaxed, but at the same time don't think TOO MUCH and don't be afraid to work up a sweat and push yourself a little bit to get past your speed boundaries.

Practice practice practice practice, it's the only key.
Click to expand...

I kinda can play on 170 bpm, but after 2-4 seconds, it turns into flams (where you bang the snare with your left and right hand simultaneously. i might not be the using the correct term though)

Yes, ive been playing slow 1/16 songs all night with my left hand leading. Its kinda fun. My hands now have equal height when doing single strokes on slower tempo.

Haha, last week i trained like crazy until i couldnt move my arms. I couldn't train for 2 days because of that.

I think im interested in metal sticks too.
 
Talismanis said:
............It doesn't have to be clean...........
Click to expand...

I'd argue the aim is to get it clean.

Fast and sloppy is still just sloppy played fast. No escaping that fact.

Talismanis said:
...........but it might be that you have the speed, you just can't control it with your left hand.
Click to expand...

Speed is a by-product of control.......not the other way round. Work on the control first and the speed follows as a matter of course.
 
What's helped me is just every day leading a lot with the left hand, playing some open handed and just give a little extra attention to the left hand.

I'm trying to learn matched now as well as I've always played traditional and I pretty much have a pair of sticks with me everywhere I go. Right now when I'm surfing the net I'm using my right hand there's a drumstick in my left.
 
Pocket-full-of-gold said:
I'd argue the aim is to get it clean.

Fast and sloppy is still just sloppy played fast. No escaping that fact.



Speed is a by-product of control.......not the other way round. Work on the control first and the speed follows as a matter of course.
Click to expand...

Carve this in stone. Control first, speed tags right along. One of the universal truths that just is.
 
I just read over what I actually said.
Yeah, ignore my previous post, or the first paragraph at least. In retrospect it was pretty dumb, even I don't agree with what I said :D
 
I agree that practicing your left hand ie: rudiments on and off the kit has a lot of value, it will strengthen and increase its aim for sure.

Just to add to this though, if you focus doing stuff with your left hand away from the kit it could expediate the process.
When I was trying to do the same some years back I tried to do as much as I could with my left hand. For example: Put your left hand into training off the kit. Eat or even try to write with your left hand, try typing opening doors anything that will awaken your hand away from the kit. Yes it will be awkward at first but after about a week your hand will start to feel more in tune with your other hand and your body in general.

The result was that it allowed for more intricate play in general and both my speed, accuracy and sound improved.
The moral here is to keep your left hand busy as much as you can. Create your own exercises on and off the drum kit. This helped me expediate the process. Good luck.

.
 
Last edited:
Yeah. Play badminton every monday. Might as well try playing with my left hand. Ive been practicising hard lately, with left hand leading, then right, then left again and im beginning to feel some improvements. Hooray! But out of curiosity, are a majority people slow because they have undeveloped left (or right depending your weaker hand) hand?
 
Sure of course. I don't think anyone is born ambidextrous, you have to use one hand as much as the other an early age in order for them to be equal and still. Every drummers goal is build their weak side if they have one, its a life long journey for most of us and still may not get totally there but enough for what you need to do. This also applies to your left foot as well.
Badminton is an excellent way to build your weak hand.
 
Sometimes, you may be able to play some patterns with left-hand hats. Do this whenever you can.

I don't have this problem because I play open, left hand hats and ride, and I am right handed. Just seemed like the most sensible way to play an instrument. Buf if you're already set in your assigned hand roles, changing would be a huge undertaking, for questionable benefits.

But you might not be as set in your ways as you think. Some patterns might lend themselves to open playing, left hand hats and ride, and play that way whenever you can.
 
Deathmetalconga said:
Sometimes, you may be able to play some patterns with left-hand hats. Do this whenever you can.

I don't have this problem because I play open, left hand hats and ride, and I am right handed. Just seemed like the most sensible way to play an instrument. Buf if you're already set in your assigned hand roles, changing would be a huge undertaking, for questionable benefits.

But you might not be as set in your ways as you think. Some patterns might lend themselves to open playing, left hand hats and ride, and play that way whenever you can.
Click to expand...

I play crossed on hats and right side ride

but about 2 years ago I started putting a ride cymbal to my left above the hi hat for some practice sessions and it woke some things up in my left hand that I actually thought were already awake.

now I only play 2 rides as you can see in my sig pic and often practice patterns riding with my left hand on the left ride

unbelievable what you figure out when you step outside your comfort zone
 
Strangely I find that my right (dominant) hand is now slower than my left hand, even though the reverse situation used to be the case. Nevertheless, there are exercises out there that solve these problems. I would recommend setting your metronome to the desired speed that you want, and playing 8 8th note strokes with one hand, then alternating and doing another 8 8th note strokes with the other hand, and alternating back and forth between hands for a desired amount of time. It should be like this:

r r r r r r r r l l l l l l l l...

Following this exercise, just do a normal single stroke roll at the same tempo. This time, however, you can try to subdivide it into 16th notes. It should be like this:

rlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrl...

After a few minutes (or hours) of doing this, you may want to raise the tempo a bit.
It's simple, but it works. It's a great way to build speed and be more consistent with each hand.
 
What sent my singles through the roof was practicing the overused cliche metal roll that I always fall back on till it was tight tight tight like a tiger. RLRLFF til I died, was chuffed when I could slam it out but the real awesome by-product was Mega super fast quick singles. Being said I hardly ever use singles cos doubles rule my universe -proper doubles- none of that cheapy buzz roll shizer sound techs use to look good checking the gear. Ugh. The rlrlff worked well because I had to start slow and work up which gave me good control. And if you really want to round off learning tons of good technique, make both of the kicks single foot. Will make hand foot doubles and 16th triplets rfflff etc party time too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top