Ringo... who knew?

I'm going to do what you say and set up my small bop kit for a lefty, right now.

Wow this is a real eye opener. I really thought I would do better than I did. Very humbling.

Good for you Larry. I'm not that brave... LOL


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Good try Larry!

Since I'm naturally lefty, I tried to switch mine from righty to see if it made things easier. Nope. I'm so used to playing a right handed kit that I can't switch now. I cannot play use a kick drum pedal with my left foot. I also can't play ghost notes with my right hand, but that one could possibly be overcome with lots of practice.

I've considered getting a remote pedal similar to a left handed double pedal and a remote HH pedal so I could keep using my right foot on bass and my left on HH, but haven't had the money to experiment.
 
Years ago I played at an open jam in Baltimore, and the house drummer was a lefty with a left-handed setup. He was kind of a jerk, and wouldn't let anyone rearrange the kit. So I used to get up there and play left-handed. I sucked at it, but I played, and it ended up getting me a gig because I had the balls to do it. I did get better at it, too, after a few weeks, but not what you would call proficient. My hat's off to anyone who can master it.
 
Steve Bailey (an electric bass educator) was giving a seminar and he was trying to get the attendee's to focus on facts regarding students. He talked about the fact that many, many instructors have forgotten how difficult picking up that instrument and having any technical dexterity on it was. They have been so long that it is a forgotten part of the process. So he them to take their basses and turn them over and start left handed. A realization hit the entire group immediately. It was a great lesson and an excellent exercise to bridge that gap between accomplished instructor and fledgling student.

This struck me to. I know now what it feels like to be a beginner with no coordination. It's pretty scary actually to be so bad at it.

Good for you Larry. I'm not that brave... LOL


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Everything I did felt so retarded. It's amazing how my brain is only good at drumming one way.

If anyone says they're bored, I'm suggesting this. I was cracking myself up!
 
I'm a lefty that plays a right handed kit. Usually there's no problem playing right handed, but when practicing fills I often have to concentrate on leading with my right hand.

I keep saying I'm going to try the Purdie set up, but haven't gotten around to it. (low rack on left, high rack on right).


If your'e left handed the natural thing to do would be play a right handed kit open handed, but this doesn't solve the problem if your left foot is dominant.
 
This struck me to. I know now what it feels like to be a beginner with no coordination. It's pretty scary actually to be so bad at it.



Everything I did felt so retarded. It's amazing how my brain is only good at drumming one way.

If anyone says they're bored, I'm suggesting this. I was cracking myself up!

Okay... being that I also play instruments tuned in 4ths (i.e. guitar and bass) and instruments tuned in 5ths (violin/mandolin/Tenor banjo/viola) I thought that if I got a left handed guitar (tuned in 4ths) and flipped it over to play right handed it would then be in 5ths & it might be a cool experiment. Dick Dale (a lefty) flipped a guitar over and played it upside down and backwards (in 5ths) and it was a very unique and hip sound he created by doing that. So did a few bassists like Jimmy Haslip also a lefty (of Yellow Jackets fame). It really gives one a totally unique approach to the instrument. One might ask... "why did they do that?" The answer... back in the 60's one was hard pressed to purchase an off the rack left handed instrument... Hendrix? Yes he was left handed and he also took the flipped over guitar and had the strings reversed so it played in 4ths. BUT! Hendrix could also play a right handed guitar upside down and backwards... indicating that as a lefty he picked up not a few right handed guitars and figured out how to play them upside down and backwards (i.e. tuned in 5ths like a violin or tenor banjo). I guess I'll put that on the bucket list.

You see... take a 4 string bass for example. If you turn it over and play with the opposing hand (upside down and backwards) you are then playing in 5ths. It's that simple , or that difficult, or that...

You know, if I had ALL to do over again (knowing what I know at this point in life) I would have taken piano (a percussion instrument) and drums... and perhaps stuck with trombone, bass and perhaps tenor banjo... great googallymoogally I'm having another extreme attack of G.A.S.... intervention! intervention!
 
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I'm a lefty that grew up playing right handed guitar because I had a right-handed guitarist as a father. In my teens, I realized that I would never be a virtuoso due to the physical limitations and turned my studies towards sonically capable (but simplistic) playing. Jimi Page, Dickey Betts, Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, etc.

When I picked up drums two years ago, I did the same. Ringo's sound is quite an inspiration to me. I did set up a kit left handed for two days just to try it out, and it was certainly much more intuitive.
 
I'm going to be playing "Come Together" by the Beatles.
In the song you can clearly hear the higher pitch tom first, then the lower pitched tom second.

Hollywood, not to say it matters that much, but you might want to listen to the recording again. I did and the higher pitch tom is clearly last. So, proof positive, end of conspiracy theories, Ringo was right, he's a lefty :)
 
I'm going to be playing "Come Together" by the Beatles.
In the song you can clearly hear the higher pitch tom first, then the lower pitched tom second.

Hollywood, not to say it matters that much, but you might want to listen to the recording again. I did and the higher pitch tom is clearly last. So, proof positive, end of conspiracy theories, Ringo was right, he's a lefty :)

You are correct, it does not matter much.
But I just listened to it again. I know what he might have done. He had two tea towels on his floor tom and one on his smaller rack tom.
This produced a higher pitched slap to the floor tom.

Sorry, I still hear a slightly lower pitch at the end of the triplets.
(He may have accomplished this by staying on one tom and hitting the drum harder at the beginning of the triplet, then softer for the last part of the triplets)

Listen here: https://youtu.be/HgGh8GNX3Us


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Strangely I think it's more apparent on the album, than on the isolated tracks. But no matter, it's all good anyway you play it. I play about an hour of Beatles every time I sit down and I'm always amazed at just how much I have to accommodate style and technique to get close to the right sound on Beatles' covers. It should be so easy, but like the man said, "it don't come easy".
 
Strangely I think it's more apparent on the album, than on the isolated tracks. But no matter, it's all good anyway you play it. I play about an hour of Beatles every time I sit down and I'm always amazed at just how much I have to accommodate style and technique to get close to the right sound on Beatles' covers. It should be so easy, but like the man said, "it don't come easy".

Right on my friend !!

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I'm going to be playing "Come Together" by the Beatles.
In the song you can clearly hear the higher pitch tom first, then the lower pitched tom second.

Hollywood, not to say it matters that much, but you might want to listen to the recording again. I did and the higher pitch tom is clearly last. So, proof positive, end of conspiracy theories, Ringo was right, he's a lefty :)

Its clear to me also the higher tom is second/last, lower tom first. Im also doubtful Ringo would forget how he played it, its a one of a kind groove, he wouldn't forget mechanically.
 
Steve Bailey (an electric bass educator) was giving a seminar and he was trying to get the attendee's to focus on facts regarding students. He talked about the fact that many, many instructors have forgotten how difficult picking up that instrument and having any technical dexterity on it actually was. They have playing been so long that it is a forgotten part of the process. So he then had to take their basses and turn them over and start left handed. A realization hit the entire group immediately. It was a great lesson and an excellent exercise to bridge that gap between accomplished instructor and fledgling student.

I had to do something similar during training for a charity involved in adult literacy. We had to copy a piece of Russian text with our non-dominant hand, so that we'd know what it feels for someone who is not familiar with the shape of the letters and not used to holding a pen.
 
I knew Ringo was a lefty - shortly after I became interested in drumming (I couldn't give a rats ass before).

I think Ringo may have played with a 'righty' set - purely because that was probably all that was available when he started out and as most drum sets at the time had a rail mounted rack tom on the R/H side of the bass drum this would make it pretty difficult to have a left handed set up without surgery to relocate the stupid rail mount for the tom that were common on most drum sets.

When I started out I checked out getting drum lessons locally - explained that I'm a lefty and asked if this would be a problem - the replies were "you'll soon get used to playing right handed". Changing the set around to accommodate me was not possible, maybe this was part of the reason Ringo played a R/H set up. Nothing to back this up just my personal (and probably inaccurate) opinion.
 
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