What do you think of playing open handed?

I play open-handed 90% of the time, just feels more comfortable to me, i do play crossed hands if the musical situation warrants it...

as has been said by more people on here than i can name, "find what feels natural to you and stick with it"

cheers
 
Easily as good an approach if not better than crossed.
 
I wish I could do it better. Or at all.
 
I think it's very useful and very challenging.
 
Very popular on the Internet, not at all popular among actual drumming professionals. Some of the reasons for this are explored here.

I largely agree with you on this Todd. I played open handed exclusively for 2 years and, looking back, I realize I essentially spent two years of hard work that really did not significantly improve neither my vocabulary nor my musicianship.

Your point on your blog about the cross-lateral coordination aspect of it was cool, too.

I bet almost every serious drummer experiments with open handed playing sometime in their life, though. I encourage everyone to try it but it's not some magic bullet that will, all of a sudden "open up a whole new world of possibility" just because you can now hit your 10" tom while playing the hi hat.
 
Love your work Henri lol. That's what was missing this whole time lol.
 
I'm pretty lazy by nature and don't spend much time working on things that aren't immediately useful, and definitely not for purely academic reasons. But I've found that playing open handed changes my feel. By putting my weak hand on ride duty my 8th notes straighten out and my dominant hand plays back beats with less lag (more on the beat instead of flamming behind it). It's a pretty spiffing trick, IMO.

For me, that's more than enough reason to pursue it. It's got nothing to do with how cool it might look or making me a more balanced player. I suppose I should have control of those elements playing crossed over, but like I said, I'm lazy.

A nice benefit is opening up the rest of the kit, but that isn't the motivation.
 
Now that I've had more time to think about it, I wish this had said originally:

If you're just starting out, then make it an equally-developed part of your playing along with everything else that you are choosing to learn how to do.

If you have been playing for a while, then only learn open-handed if you need it in order to execute something that you otherwise cannot execute cross-handed. One example is if you come up with a groove on the toms and cymbals where you want the hi-hat to remain instead of being 'broken up', such as Don't Stop Believin'. Where it can get tricky is if you want a very right-handed hi-hat sound while doing a groove like this, so this is why you might want to consider learning how to play open-handed. It can be just another tool in your toolbox. Otherwise, don't try creating a tool that you might never use when you could be spending that time creating tools that you'll use nearly every time you play.
 
I try to play that way sometimes at rehearsal during simple sections just to change things up. I think it's a great way to play I just didn't learn that way so it's tough for me to feel it. Ghost notes are almost impossible for me open handed. As soon as it gets even a little more complex I have to switch back. It's not something I'll be putting much effort into though.

One of my favorite drummers of all time, Will Kennedy, plays open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5eG8iAke00
 
Last edited:
I largely agree with you on this Todd. I played open handed exclusively for 2 years and, looking back, I realize I essentially spent two years of hard work that really did not significantly improve neither my vocabulary nor my musicianship.

Your point on your blog about the cross-lateral coordination aspect of it was cool, too.

Thanks, glad you liked it-- those are the two universal things I've noticed with beginners: they can all play their right hand and right foot together without even trying, and they nearly all have a really hard time playing their left hand and right foot together. Since much of drumming hangs off the cymbal and bass drum working together, it seems a no-brainer to do it the easy way.

I'm not against people trying things, but they should at least know the reasons for the normal way of doing things.
 
I purposefully use a minimal improvised electronic kit (kick, snare, hats) at home to play along to music open handedly and develop skills that are underdeveloped by playing crossed over for all those years. Pretty fun, because every new thing you master feels like a cool acomplishment, it's almost like learning a new instrument (but one you don't totally suck in). Which is cool :D
 
I'm pretty lazy by nature and don't spend much time working on things that aren't immediately useful, and definitely not for purely academic reasons. But I've found that playing open handed changes my feel. By putting my weak hand on ride duty my 8th notes straighten out and my dominant hand plays back beats with less lag (more on the beat instead of flamming behind it). It's a pretty spiffing trick, IMO.

For me, that's more than enough reason to pursue it. It's got nothing to do with how cool it might look or making me a more balanced player. I suppose I should have control of those elements playing crossed over, but like I said, I'm lazy.

I think that is an excellent reason to do it. The choice is based upon a musical criteria as opposed to a "drumistic" one.
 
Back
Top