[yabozak]

Hello Folks - I am brand new to drumming & from Los Angeles area. I am left handed.

About two weeks ago I decided to jump into this and bought a used kit.

I had one drum lesson and had a blast. My short term goal is to be able to get a good cardio workout from playing the drumset.

If you were in my shoes, would you learn open handed style on right handed setup or cross over style on a left handed set up?

[Thumpthdrum]

Actually a right handed setup and play the hi hats and snare both left handed or right handed. This has advantages, remember.....this is a right handed world, and going forward if at any time you play a show, that already has the drums set up chances are they will be set up for a right handed player. I recently saw a Sheryl Crow DVD and Shaw Pelton was playing drums. Shawn at times played the hats and snare both ways...right hand--hats...left hand---snare and right hand---snare
and left hand--hats. To be able to play this way has allows you to be more versatile.


Good Luck.......Keep Rockin.

[deamon_drummer]

Originally Posted by yabozak

Hello Folks - I am brand new to drumming & from Los Angeles area. I am left handed.

About two weeks ago I decided to jump into this and bought a used kit.

I had one drum lesson and had a blast. My short term goal is to be able to get a good cardio workout from playing the drumset.

If you were in my shoes, would you learn open handed style on right handed setup or cross over style on a left handed set up?

well all you gotta do is what I do I play left majorly and I play open handed setups for lefty's like myself just set up the kit backwords if your open handed get a double bass kit and get 2 of every cymbol you got and put one of each on both sides.... including hihats if you need more help I will send some pics of my kit

[slingerland59]

Yes, I agree with the advice you're getting here. The goal nowadays is for complete 4-limb independence and it doesn't matter if you're right or left handed. I've got a ride cymbal on both sides, I use two bass drums and I put the hihat at the 11 o'clock position beside the snare so it's easy to reach with either hand (someday I'd like two hihats).

If your goal is to one day have a double kit then you could set up like a righty for now, learning bass patterns with your right (less dominant) foot, and playing the hihat with your left foot (it's the feet preferences which really determine the set-up, not the hands). That would give you a "leg up" in terms of strengthening your weak foot.

But if you don't aspire to this total independence, double kit goal, then you'd probably be more comfortable having a lefty set-up, playing the bass drum with the left foot and hihat with the right. You could still practice independence with the hands, playing hihat patterns with the right hand as well as the cross-over left. But at least you'll pick up bass drum patterns more easily using your dominant foot.

That's a lot of writing just to end up with the result...your choice!

[yabozak]

Thank you all for your advice. I'll try open handed first and see how it goes.