How to strengthen Weaker hand

Reversing your drum kit is probably the most effective/quickest way to strengthen your weak hand. Other than that, equal rudiment practice with your left and right hand will eventually allow your left to catch up.
 
itsbettertodieyoung said:
my right hand is much stronger than my left, are there any simple excercises that I can do to increase the stamina and strength in my left arm?
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Yes, there is!! Dom Famularo wrote a book for just that purpose. It is really simple, and the results are amazing. It is called The Weaker Side, and it has you playing melodies between your weak and strong hands, and same thing for the feet. It is a one hour daily drill, designed to be followed for one year! I have been using it for almost a year, and my weak hand is unrecognizable. Definitely get this, and start the cure!!

Casper
 
itsbettertodieyoung said:
my right hand is much stronger than my left, are there any simple excercises that I can do to increase the stamina and strength in my left arm?
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Spend at least an hour a day playing with no right arm. Pretend it's chopped off or something. Do this everyday for a couple months.

You'll be pretty caught up.

Otherwise, focus on working on your strokes being as symmetrical as humanly possible whilst performing rolls and all other figures. I realized that my matched grip left hand would never be quite the same as the right... HOWEVER.. I discovered my left hand traditional grip beat the heck out of my right in most areas (I'm left handed, actually but play righty).

Anyway...yeah... do serious left-hand-only practice, playing and even record yourself one-handed.
 
This happens to nearly every drummer, it sure did happened to me.

Key thing is to use a metronome and do single strokes mostly, but other rudiments will obviously be very good.

Try Ted Reeds 'Syncopation.' It has some really good exercises that will get your hands right into shape. Just keep at it, your hands will strengthen with time.
 
i only want to add a good thing to do is to try to be a lefty for some time not only at drums ,but brush your teeth, eat, write even use the remote with the left hand. At least that helped me a lot.
 
Another obvious method (which should always be done) is to balance your exercises equally. Everytime you do a group of rudiments beginning with your rt hand, do equal amounts with your left. You might discover you'll need to slow down the metronome for the left hand however, but if you stay at it, your off hand with eventually catch up to the other with extra emphasis on that hand. Paradiddle diddles are a good challenge for the weak hand... R L RR LL... or L R LL RR. Play these in 4/4 with the first note on each count. It's a triplet feel.
 
I used to play a few tunes open handed (really trying to focus on technique). This helped with my weak left hand and dexterity.
 
In addition, get a tennis ball and do some gripping exercises with it (you will gain strength and endurance, on your fingers, hands and forearms). Also, try to practise those lightning-fast triplets & fills from John Bonham.

All The Best,
 
Jonesy said:
Reversing your drum kit is probably the most effective/quickest way to strengthen your weak hand. Other than that, equal rudiment practice with your left and right hand will eventually allow your left to catch up.
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I have this problem at the moment, so how long does the reversing your kit method take to strengthen my left hand because i need to do it but i need to practise other stuff RIGHT handed aswell like grades etc...

Would playing open handed have the same effect??

Thanks

tris
 
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Instead of reversing the drum kit, which in theory is an excellent idea, just reverse the roles of your left and right hand.
 
SharkyBait911 said:
I have this problem at the moment, so how long does the reversing your kit method take to strengthen my left hand because i need to do it but i need to practise other stuff RIGHT handed aswell like grades etc...

Would playing open handed have the same effect??

Thanks

tris
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Ya, playing open handed should have the same effect, although you won't be able to get your left hand onto the ride cymbal. This can be a problem depending on how often you use your hi hat.
 
Besides, what you can do also, is to relocate your ride cymbal on your left side and ride it open handed. It helps, I do it sometimes.
 
I also would like to recommend The Weaker Side that was metioned before in the thread. It is like Stick Control but only focusing on the left hand. The difference between this way of practicing and the one metioned where you only play with your left hand for an hour a day is, that in this book you are playing a lot of different phrases which is a much more musical and useable thing to do than just yank out notes with the left hand - so go and buy that. It's only like 7,95. And if it sounds frightening with the one-hour practice routine, I can tell that the author also discusses 30-minute, 15-minute and 7½-minute practice routines so there's possibilities for everybody here!Asker
 
What I'm doing is spending half of my practice pad time each day isolating the left hand. So if you're spending 90 minutes on the pad, 45 minutes is Mangini Method (meaning very slowly and without stopping. I do eights at 110.) singles with the left hand only, and the other 45 minutes is everything else, singles, doubles, etc. etc. etc. Its been working great. I mean, whatever you do, the common denominator will be: simply spend more time on it.
 
I don't know why I didn't post this the first time. Go to John Favicchia's thread and scroll down most of the page until you find his Elements Work Sheet. Not only will these fun exercises help your weak hand, they will also tighten up your chops in general. I do these everyday starting first with the right to warm up, and then with the left. It'll really work that left hand if you're not accustomed to this kind of regiment. Since doing so my left hand has improved to my liking. Good for the BD also.

I've found another way of playing the paradiddle diddles that will not only work your weak hand but also tax that part of the brain that'd rather nap, which is usually the root cause of the 'weaker side'. Try playing Todd Suchermans paradiddlediddle and a half. This will keep you on your toes as the accents alternate from rt to lft. It goes; RLRRLL RLRRLL RLRR LRLLRR LRLLRR LRLL and then back to the rt to restart. Notice how it does two paradiddlediddles and then a regular paradiddle, which will force you change lead hands to play the second grouping if played correctly. Sorry to be so verbose, but all of the ideas suggested have a lot of merit and I wanted to introduce you to these also.
 
intheruff said:
I don't know why I didn't post this the first time. Go to John Favicchia's thread and scroll down most of the page until you find his Elements Work Sheet. Not only will these fun exercises help your weak hand, they will also tighten up your chops in general. I do these everyday starting first with the right to warm up, and then with the left. It'll really work that left hand if you're not accustomed to this kind of regiment. Since doing so my left hand has improved to my liking. Good for the BD also.

I've found another way of playing the paradiddle diddles that will not only work your weak hand but also tax that part of the brain that'd rather nap, which is usually the root cause of the 'weaker side'. Try playing Todd Suchermans paradiddlediddle and a half. This will keep you on your toes as the accents alternate from rt to lft. It goes; RLRRLL RLRRLL RLRR LRLLRR LRLLRR LRLL and then back to the rt to restart. Notice how it does two paradiddlediddles and then a regular paradiddle, which will force you change lead hands to play the second grouping if played correctly. Sorry to be so verbose, but all of the ideas suggested have a lot of merit and I wanted to introduce you to these also.
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That actually looks like a great excersise, thanks for sharing! *Goes to practice pad*
 
If you want something to watch to give you exercises to do (as I learn best by visually watching), Kenny Aronoff has a video he puts out called Power Workout 1 and 2, and transcriptions that go along with it. If you can do these exercises as he describes, by the end you should have no problems. He is all about equal effort with both hands and feet, which has also helped me with my lazy left foot. Caution, it is harder than he makes it look in these videos. Good luck.
 
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