[Golden_Child27]

I have recently tried open-handed drumming and it leads me to this question. If the hi-hat is on the right side of the set, are fills meant to be played with the left hand on 1 in order to return to the hi-hat on one, or do you continue to play with right hand leading like a cross-stick approach? I occasionally get the "whatever feels best" answer, but for best technical appprach, what is it suppose to be...Thanks!

[butter]

well, once again, do what feels best

actually, i have started playing open handed as well, thanks to you. this question is a good one
you can do either one, but i think it is easier to start the fill with the left hand, and come back to the hats on 1, like you said, but for me this is a bit difficult because i have to think about the fills i normally play out of reaction, the fills i know and dont have to think about, i have to sort of re-learn.
you could start the fills with your right hand and still come back on 1 with the left hand on the hats. you would have to be pretty quick, sometimes, though, with faster beats.

so my answer, like i said, is do what feels right... im no drum teacher, so i dont know if one way is "technically" correct, but if one of the two ways IS technically right, i would say it would be the first way, starting fills left-handed. while starting left handed is more difficult for me, when doing the fills i know second-nature, it feels like the right way to do them when playing open-handed.

hope this helps
butter

[Golden_Child27]

Yeah I feel that left hand is right to end with left on the hi-hat on one, like you said, re-learning fills because of that right hand dominance, I also noticed though...that with two sticks on the hi-hat (rolling), that it is still better to start with right hand on one, so that you can hit the snare on two & four like your suppose to without crossing sticks and getting back to where you started. Do you agree?

[butter]

by rolling, do you mean doing straight notes on the hats?

if thats what you mean, then yes i think it is better to start with the right hand.

[Golden_Child27]

regular 1 ee and uh, then you can hit 2 on the snare!

[Philly2Brooklyn]

This is a great question! I stopped playing for about a year and i have picked it up again and i totally forgot about open-handed, it is so useful in the quest to master this instrument!!

[Maine Railfan]

I am a right handed drummer who plays open handed. I am self taught. I took a few lessons as a kid, but my teacher dropped me from lessons because I could not(and still can't) play crossed over using my right hand on the hi-hats, so for years I thought I was alone in playing open. I have my kit set up as a traditional right handed drummer would, for the most part. I use my left hand on the hats and my right on he snare. This is how my body works best, and my hat is off to all of you who can play crossed over. For the abilities(or lack thereof) I have, it just feels "Natural" to play open. I drum for two bands, a heavy metal band and also a country/light rock band. Does anyone have any suggestions for tips or tricks for someone who uses my playing style?

[butter]

You shouldn't insinuate that you lack abilities because you play open. That is stupid. Also, whatever teacher you had who dropped is very stupid. That is a terrible reason to quit teaching someone. I would recommend trying to learn to play crossed, simple because it will make you more versatile, but there are plenty of open handed players, so don't switch unless you want to.
Anyway, what kind of tricks and tips are you looking for?

[HXCBencore]

Right, so basically, open handed can be great. But like everyone has said, there isn't much more to say other than do what feels right. You'll find when your playing open handed, depending on the speed and location (around the kit) of the fill, you may want to start on your right, you may want to start on your left. What I'm saying is, playing open handed can open up for all new sorts of fills while your playing, and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Personally, I prefer to play open handed/start fills left hand while I'm playing blasts, specifically bomb/skank blasts. However, because I'm only just starting to learn the gravity blast, I still play that 'closed' handed.

But coming back to it, there is no right or wrong way to play open handed, it just depends on what comes to you as second nature.

Hope that helped...
Ben.

[dtxtremeiiispecial]

Maine,
To view previous threads on open-handed playing, scroll to the top of this page, find the white rectangle in the upper left hand corner of this page, enter "open-handed playing," and hit the "go" button. On the bottom half of the next page you see are previous threads on open-handed playing. There are many pages of them.

This is a guess, but my guess is that if you skip the threads that say "will open-handed playing become standard?" you may run into better stuff. I really don't know. Anyway, that stuff awaits you if you are so inclined. Good hunting.