Karen Columbo
Member
First post here - and that is just because I did not want to resurrect one of the fairly old threads dealing with this genetic anomaly.
Just wanted to tell my side of this sad story and how I ended up dealing with it.
And I'll keep it short, promise.
I "learned" to play the drums on a typical righty-set. As a totally left-handed person I've always been playing open-handed. So I was always uncomfortable with your typical drum roll breaks Sn-Sn-TT1-TT1-TT2-TT2 etc. because I had to cross my hands on the transition to the next drum. Not to mention the ride cymbal being way out of reach of my left and me being not coordinated enough to lead with my right hand.
Kick drum with my left foot is impossible. I never really got taught, but Hi-Hat left/Kick drum right got burned into my synapses for almost 35 years (I'm 51)
Phase 1 (the past): mirroring (almost) the complete set
- playing cross-handed was no option, so the Hi-Hat HAD TO stay left of the snare drum (impossible because of the bass drum), better yet: ABOVE/BEHIND the snare drum. Which meant I had to ...
- buy a decent remote cable Hi-Hat (360 Euros, I settled for the Pearl Eliminator series) and the respective clamp for it to fasten it to a cymbal stand
- I had to rebuild the Speed Cobra double pedal. With the right tools (basically just the correct allen keys) a thing of about an hour
Conclusion: total weirdness. A part of my lefty brain rejoiced, the rest of me couldn't cope with the very unusual look and feel. And the indirect feel of the remote controlled parts just got me disconnected from the kick drum and the Hi-Hat. I hated it.
Phase 2 (the present): Falling back to a righty drummer set-up
This time I ended up with the ride cymbal left/above of the Hi-Hat and the tom-toms reversed (I only have 2 of them, 10" and 12")
Conclusion: Slightly unbalanced look of the setup because of the massive ride cymbal on the "wrong side" and the jumbled order of tom sizes.
It's not perfect, I still have to adapt my playing, but it's the best I can get out of it as long as I'm not rolling in dough and have my personal custom drum set built for me by well-paid drum kit builders.
Phase 3 (the future): practicing my own situationally unique style.
In my case this means I practice switching the leading hand any time I have to, mid-riff, mid-break etc. so I don't run into sticking problems during breaks and complicated patterns.
The only unresolved matter is the position of the Hi-Hat (I'd love to have it above/behind the snare drum) - but that's not left/right hand related and entirely anothe matter. And I still got the cable Hi-Hat stored in a cupboard somewhere.
Conclusion: Yet to be determined.
Just wanted to tell my side of this sad story and how I ended up dealing with it.
And I'll keep it short, promise.
I "learned" to play the drums on a typical righty-set. As a totally left-handed person I've always been playing open-handed. So I was always uncomfortable with your typical drum roll breaks Sn-Sn-TT1-TT1-TT2-TT2 etc. because I had to cross my hands on the transition to the next drum. Not to mention the ride cymbal being way out of reach of my left and me being not coordinated enough to lead with my right hand.
Kick drum with my left foot is impossible. I never really got taught, but Hi-Hat left/Kick drum right got burned into my synapses for almost 35 years (I'm 51)
Phase 1 (the past): mirroring (almost) the complete set
- playing cross-handed was no option, so the Hi-Hat HAD TO stay left of the snare drum (impossible because of the bass drum), better yet: ABOVE/BEHIND the snare drum. Which meant I had to ...
- buy a decent remote cable Hi-Hat (360 Euros, I settled for the Pearl Eliminator series) and the respective clamp for it to fasten it to a cymbal stand
- I had to rebuild the Speed Cobra double pedal. With the right tools (basically just the correct allen keys) a thing of about an hour
Conclusion: total weirdness. A part of my lefty brain rejoiced, the rest of me couldn't cope with the very unusual look and feel. And the indirect feel of the remote controlled parts just got me disconnected from the kick drum and the Hi-Hat. I hated it.
Phase 2 (the present): Falling back to a righty drummer set-up
This time I ended up with the ride cymbal left/above of the Hi-Hat and the tom-toms reversed (I only have 2 of them, 10" and 12")
Conclusion: Slightly unbalanced look of the setup because of the massive ride cymbal on the "wrong side" and the jumbled order of tom sizes.
It's not perfect, I still have to adapt my playing, but it's the best I can get out of it as long as I'm not rolling in dough and have my personal custom drum set built for me by well-paid drum kit builders.
Phase 3 (the future): practicing my own situationally unique style.
In my case this means I practice switching the leading hand any time I have to, mid-riff, mid-break etc. so I don't run into sticking problems during breaks and complicated patterns.
The only unresolved matter is the position of the Hi-Hat (I'd love to have it above/behind the snare drum) - but that's not left/right hand related and entirely anothe matter. And I still got the cable Hi-Hat stored in a cupboard somewhere.
Conclusion: Yet to be determined.