Left-Handed Setup

J

Joey_XC

Member
So I am a left handed player, and I have been playing the kit fully reversed for 10+ years (which seems to confuse a lot of people!!)

Currently, I play in a band and at my local church - in both cases it's just me so I can set everything up how I like. I've also begun teaching a few beginners, nothing professional and I'm not charging, just some casual lessons. This has been a bit of a challenge since demonstrating things to a right-handed player is tricky, but I've managed to get ideas across successfully so far.

My fear is that if I look to start giving paid lessons in the future, or if other opportunities come up for me to play, that being a lefty may hinder me. Currently I'm working on strengthening my right hand and foot, and the hope is that I can eventually be competent enough with both hands that it won't cause a massive issue, but I don't know how practical this is going to be in the long run. Obviously open handed playing is an option too, and I think I may have to spend a bit of time on this so that I'm at least competent on a right-handed kit.

I was wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this, or if anyone has any suggestions? Ideally I don't want to go back to basics and re-teach myself right-handed. From the perspective of teaching others, I think that I need to at least be able to demonstrate some basic groove's and fills with a right-hand lead, but how far should I take this? Am I wasting my time practicing rudiments and techniques with a left-hand lead? Have I been playing the drums wrong this whole time?

Any experience or wisdom on this would be most welcome! :)
 
Well, if you have the time to devote to it, why not? And if you feel that teaching is a visual advantage to right dominant teaching. It doesn't seem like a waste of time if you have regular practice sessions, just devote some of that time to right dominant drumming.
I exchange foot and hand parts during gigs and rehearsals mid song for the practice. It's fun to do while another drummer is watching.
But it displays the issue about being behind, on or ahead of the beat for me; especially on the high hat with my weak hand, which lags.
 
I will tell you my experience. No wisdom promised.

I am mostly left-handed, but have always played my drums set up "right-handed". Initially, I played right-hand lead (on the cymbal), but eventually started playing open-handed and am now about equally proficient either way. It took about 6 months before I was comfortable playing open-handed. I suppose that transition was eased by my natural left-handedness. I would say it was totally worth it. I, like Ringo, tend to lead fills with my left hand, which is fine the vast majority of the time.

It would be a practical benefit if you can become proficient playing a kit set-up for a right-handed person. If you work at it for a few months and eventually decide it is not for you, you will gain at least a little ambidexterity. I don't really see how you can lose.

As for teaching, being able to play on a left handed kit may be a benefit when teaching right-handers. You can face two kits toward each other and the student can mirror you.
Good luck.
 
A mirror will help, although I don’t know if it’s necessary since your students seem to be able to deal.
 
DrBoom said:
I am mostly left-handed, but have always played my drums set up "right-handed".
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This is me as well. Even though I'm a leftie, I've always played a "right-handed set up... and I mostly lead fills with my left hand. In my local church, there has always been a group of drummers, so switching everything to a leftie set up each week would be a nightmare. I have no regrets about persevering to make it work. And I will say that playing tenors on drumline during college eons ago maybe helped with this... flowing left and right from one drum to another and learning sticking patterns that started with either hand.

With rudiments, I have also pushed myself to start with my right hand as it's weaker than my left. The benefits may not take as long as you think, but things do build progressively and don't happen overnight. Hang in there, you can develop a plan that will work for you!
 
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Joey_XC said:
So I am a left handed player, and I have been playing the kit fully reversed for 10+ years (which seems to confuse a lot of people!!)

Currently, I play in a band and at my local church - in both cases it's just me so I can set everything up how I like. I've also begun teaching a few beginners, nothing professional and I'm not charging, just some casual lessons. This has been a bit of a challenge since demonstrating things to a right-handed player is tricky, but I've managed to get ideas across successfully so far.

My fear is that if I look to start giving paid lessons in the future, or if other opportunities come up for me to play, that being a lefty may hinder me. Currently I'm working on strengthening my right hand and foot, and the hope is that I can eventually be competent enough with both hands that it won't cause a massive issue, but I don't know how practical this is going to be in the long run. Obviously open handed playing is an option too, and I think I may have to spend a bit of time on this so that I'm at least competent on a right-handed kit.

I was wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this, or if anyone has any suggestions? Ideally I don't want to go back to basics and re-teach myself right-handed. From the perspective of teaching others, I think that I need to at least be able to demonstrate some basic groove's and fills with a right-hand lead, but how far should I take this? Am I wasting my time practicing rudiments and techniques with a left-hand lead? Have I been playing the drums wrong this whole time?

Any experience or wisdom on this would be most welcome! :)
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Hmm...If you face the student so you're facing each other (practice pads) you'll get a mirror-image of what you're doing...follow me here: If you're facing your student and he's facing you, then what you do with your left hand, he'll do with his right, and vice versa. It might work out just fine.
 
and... You'll be teaching "sound"... So the Righty will have to duplicate your Lefty (have to have two sets in there I imagine) Sound By Ear by Sound .
And The Notes. The exercises -written material- will/can be seen as Right or left so your exercises written lessons given, shouldn't matter
Trying to be optimistic here 😁
 
I’m a full-on lefty and I no longer apologize for it. I did learn as a kid a lot of rudimentary stuff right-handed, especially if I wanted to play in a high school or drum corps drum line, but that’s as far as right-handedness went.

If I taught someone drumset stuff, it was always basic enough that I could demonstrate simple stuff - or I’d mirror with another kit. If I ever taught that much.

But I would argue that you don’t have the time to re-learn how to play. Like it isn’t dramatic enough to be able to do what you do, let’s complicate it and learn it backwards too. If you want to gig and work with others, then practice and play the best way you know how.

I used to think stuff like “well now I won’t be able to sit in”, now I think stuff like “I’ll be so good I’ll take the gig” (obviously without being a jerk). But what do you want? Do you want to teach or do you want to play? You have to play some, but when you go out, you better be playing your best - because that’s what people decide to take a lesson from you for. So be you.

If I ever get asked to sit in, all I need do is flip the snare, floor tom, and hi-hat, the rest of the kit I don’t touch. Ironically this makes me more impressive 😉
 
DrBoom said:
I will tell you my experience. No wisdom promised.

I am mostly left-handed, but have always played my drums set up "right-handed". Initially, I played right-hand lead (on the cymbal), but eventually started playing open-handed and am now about equally proficient either way. It took about 6 months before I was comfortable playing open-handed. I suppose that transition was eased by my natural left-handedness. I would say it was totally worth it. I, like Ringo, tend to lead fills with my left hand, which is fine the vast majority of the time.

It would be a practical benefit if you can become proficient playing a kit set-up for a right-handed person. If you work at it for a few months and eventually decide it is not for you, you will gain at least a little ambidexterity. I don't really see how you can lose.

As for teaching, being able to play on a left handed kit may be a benefit when teaching right-handers. You can face two kits toward each other and the student can mirror you.
Good luck.
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Thanks for the input! Open handed playing is something I definitely need to spend some time on..

One thing I've always wondered though, what do you do about the ride cymbal when playing open handed? Do you just switch and play with the other hand? I've seen some setups that move all the cymbals to the other side of the kit, but I feel like that just defeats the object!
 
Look up Daniel Glass, excellent drummer and teacher. Taking lessons with him were great, in fact I didn't reflect on him being lefthanded.
 
Bo Eder said:
I’m a full-on lefty and I no longer apologize for it. I did learn as a kid a lot of rudimentary stuff right-handed, especially if I wanted to play in a high school or drum corps drum line, but that’s as far as right-handedness went.

If I taught someone drumset stuff, it was always basic enough that I could demonstrate simple stuff - or I’d mirror with another kit. If I ever taught that much.

But I would argue that you don’t have the time to re-learn how to play. Like it isn’t dramatic enough to be able to do what you do, let’s complicate it and learn it backwards too. If you want to gig and work with others, then practice and play the best way you know how.

I used to think stuff like “well now I won’t be able to sit in”, now I think stuff like “I’ll be so good I’ll take the gig” (obviously without being a jerk). But what do you want? Do you want to teach or do you want to play? You have to play some, but when you go out, you better be playing your best - because that’s what people decide to take a lesson from you for. So be you.

If I ever get asked to sit in, all I need do is flip the snare, floor tom, and hi-hat, the rest of the kit I don’t touch. Ironically this makes me more impressive 😉
Click to expand...
This is really helpful, thank you! I think relearning from scratch might just not be worth the effort, and focusing on developing what I know is not worth my time.

For teaching I've just briefly explained that I play left-handed and that my sticking might be reversed when demonstrating certain parts, and so far all my students have understood that pretty quickly. In fact I think it can be a good learning experience for them too, and often it becomes a bit of a novelty - I've had several comments from people who have "never met a lefty drummer" which is kinda funny! 😆
 
Joey_XC said:
Thanks for the input! Open handed playing is something I definitely need to spend some time on..

One thing I've always wondered though, what do you do about the ride cymbal when playing open handed? Do you just switch and play with the other hand? I've seen some setups that move all the cymbals to the other side of the kit, but I feel like that just defeats the object!
Click to expand...
Initially I put the ride cymbal on the left side and play both the ride and the hi-hat with my left hand only. Eventually, I decided that there were things I could play better on the cymbal with my right hand and moved it back to the more customary position. I also use a crash on my left which is ride-able, so if I want to ride with my left hand, I can. Again, this is just my experience, not promising any wisdom.
 
Joey_XC said:
This is really helpful, thank you! I think relearning from scratch might just not be worth the effort, and focusing on developing what I know is not worth my time.

For teaching I've just briefly explained that I play left-handed and that my sticking might be reversed when demonstrating certain parts, and so far all my students have understood that pretty quickly. In fact I think it can be a good learning experience for them too, and often it becomes a bit of a novelty - I've had several comments from people who have "never met a lefty drummer" which is kinda funny! 😆
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Very cool. In a lot of method books, the sticking is always laid out for the student anyway, so you being left handed isn’t a huge issue. You’re just there to make sure they do the work so execution is good.
 
i studied with Joe Porcaro, who played completely left handed, he even played traditional grip in his right hand. We mostly did snare drum, but he had two kits in his studio, a right and left handed kit that mirrors each other - I liked that set up!

He told me he stated off on a right handed kit, and didn’t change to a left handed kit until he was already playing professionally. He said was a difficult change a first, almost lost his gig, but ultimately it paid off.
 
Paul Blood said:
i studied with Joe Porcaro, who played completely left handed, he even played traditional grip in his right hand. We mostly did snare drum, but he had two kits in his studio, a right and left handed kit that mirrors each other - I liked that set up!

He told me he stated off on a right handed kit, and didn’t change to a left handed kit until he was already playing professionally. He said was a difficult change a first, almost lost his gig, but ultimately it paid off.
Click to expand...
What I'm getting from this is that I need to get a second kit haha!

Thanks for the input though, it seems such a rarity to see anyone else playing a full Left-Handed set up, so it's nice to hear that there are successful teachers who play this way.
 
Joey_XC said:
So I am a left handed player, and I have been playing the kit fully reversed for 10+ years (which seems to confuse a lot of people!!)

Currently, I play in a band and at my local church - in both cases it's just me so I can set everything up how I like. I've also begun teaching a few beginners, nothing professional and I'm not charging, just some casual lessons. This has been a bit of a challenge since demonstrating things to a right-handed player is tricky, but I've managed to get ideas across successfully so far.

My fear is that if I look to start giving paid lessons in the future, or if other opportunities come up for me to play, that being a lefty may hinder me. Currently I'm working on strengthening my right hand and foot, and the hope is that I can eventually be competent enough with both hands that it won't cause a massive issue, but I don't know how practical this is going to be in the long run. Obviously open handed playing is an option too, and I think I may have to spend a bit of time on this so that I'm at least competent on a right-handed kit.

I was wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this, or if anyone has any suggestions? Ideally I don't want to go back to basics and re-teach myself right-handed. From the perspective of teaching others, I think that I need to at least be able to demonstrate some basic groove's and fills with a right-hand lead, but how far should I take this? Am I wasting my time practicing rudiments and techniques with a left-hand lead? Have I been playing the drums wrong this whole time?

Any experience or wisdom on this would be most welcome! :)
Click to expand...
I am also left-handed. I started out in the right-handed world, traditional grip at the ripe-old age of 12. Marching band, concert band and eventually off into kit-land. Switched over to a left-handed kit setup in 2009-ish. Best decision I ever made - credit for the suggestion goes to my son. I use matching over-hand grip when I’m behind the kit.

All that said, I have joined the local Pipe Band as a snare drummer. Back to traditional grip and… leading with my right hand. And… practicing the rudiments until my arms go numb. This is a completely different world. And yet, it is vaguely familiar...

Best advice is do what works for you. Play it like you were born that way!
 
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