[slingerland59]

Like Stickman, I find shuffles the easiest beat to practice open-handed, so I do them alot to build confidence!

When you play a shuffle with the right hand on the ride or hihat, the left hand pattern can be identical on the snare, with accents on beats two and four. So it's not much of a leap to move the left hand to a hihat or ride cymbal on the left side and move the right hand onto the snare. The beat sounds the same. The trick is to be able to play the accents on beats two and four with the right hand, or to change the right hand pattern into single strokes on two and four instead of a shuffle pattern.

To some extent the hardest part about playing open handed is teaching the right hand what to do, not just building strength in the left hand. Anyway, the shuffle pattern can be practised with right hand on ride for a bar or two and then left hand for a bar or two, and back again, with a continuous flow.

I saw the drummer from SilverSun Pickups on tv the other night and he moved easily mid-song from a left handed eighth note pattern on the hihat to a right handed one on the floor tom. I think it looks cool, it's ergonomic, and it's the wave of the future.