Re-Learning to play cross handed - Is it worth it?

[simmo0916]

Morning all!

It's been quite a while since I posted here, but I guess some of you are bound to remember me!
Anyways, I play drums open handed, and have been playing for nearly 2 years now (not full time but just potching whenever I can). Im finding that I still cant seperate my hands and feet effectively. Is it worth starting from scratch and playing crossed? Or maybe just changing my kit round to a left hand setup?!

Some advice please gents, I have been stuck and unable to get much better, and It's starting to bug me!
It's good to be back

[campster]

I'm no guru drum teacher but you probably need to focus on some exercises that focus on hand/feet independence. For instance stuff like LRLR LRLR with your feet while you do LLRR LLRR with your hands. You can mix that up to your liking using doubles/singles/paradiddles etc. I'm learning double kick and part of the book i've got focuses on this...that said even if you don't play double kick you can still work on this with a hihat.

[TheYardbird]

I've been playing open-handed for like 7-8 years, sometimes I play cross-handed just for the heck of it but I haven't run into any problems that appear just because I play open-handed.
But still, it couldn't hurt practicing your cross-handed skills a bit, could it? Changing your kit to a left hand setup would require you to re-learn your bassdrum and hi-hat foot techniques

[JimFiore]

Im finding that I still cant seperate my hands and feet effectively. Is it worth starting from scratch and playing crossed?

If your car has a flat tire, a viable solution to the problem is not changing the oil. If hand/foot independence is lacking, that's what you need to work on.

Limb independence is separate from playing cross vs. open. Being able to play both ways will aid independence but it's not the first thing you should work on.

[Kenster]

+1 on Jim's advice. You are definitely are dealing with two separate issues...limb independence and open vs. cross. I am curious about changing your set up to left handed. What else do you do left handed? Handwriting? Do you know if you're left or right eye dominant? I see this problem with teaching firearms students where they are left handed but have to learn to shoot right based on eye dominance/ability to overcome it. I realize firearms and drumming are not the same but it is the same when we're talking about student comfort levels as in, are you more comfortable and ABLE to play one way or another? Seems to me changing your entire setup to left handed after playing x number of years is not the solution to limb independence. Sounds a little like you've sort of been puttering in the dark. A lot of the bottom line is also....the dreaded word...PRACTICE. Everyone else already nailed that part of advice. Find a good teacher or instructional DVD that features training exercises suited to your needs and get busy!!!!

The other side of your question regarding open vs cross handed...if you've been trying for years and years and even have done all the instructional exercises, maybe cross handed will be the way to go for that issue. Some folks just can't do certain things. I'm not the greatest at openhanded so I don't really mess around with it much. Since I'm far better at cross handed, I've spent my time becoming mediocre playing cross, rather than terrible at open. Make sense? Good luck!

K ;-)

[hairmetal-81]

Just curious:
Since when does Handwriting dictate how I should set up my kit? Is a south-paw not allowed to set his kit up the right-handed way?




The Geneva Conventions will have to atone a huge, huuuuge fine if you were to tell them that I was doing exactly this for the last 20+ years....

[Kenster]

Heh heh...he said "dictate".

K ;-)