“Gary used 3 hats in his teaching studio because he taught each of his students to play leading with the left hand as well as the right, while allowing the LF HH to play independently.
Personally, I eventually dropped the third hat on left, and opted to have my students learn to play the LH ride parts on the LF HH while continuing to play LF part, learning to listen intently to opening LF/LH sounds while playing. For RH lead I continue to use an XH on the right.
Gary was genius in what he had us do!! I can’t even imagine where he would have taken all this now!! Regardless of where his curious, innovated mind would have taken him, I do think he might have dropped the third hat eventually also. Hope this sheds some light.”