Thanks for introducing me to Harry Miree, love his groove and great drum sound!

When I watch Harry Miree and bruford using cable hats to open up the kitI do find it a very attractive approach. Maybe in the future...

When I first saw Harry Miree a couple years ago, it hit me how his drum layout is very close to Holland's. He started slowly rearranging his kit shortly after moving to Tennessee. I've always assumed that Holland was one of his key inspirations for doing that. P.S. Nod to Holland playing for Carl Perkins too. I have a couple old Carl Perkins albums that Mom had collected way back. Put Your Cat Clothes On! Oh and here is Holland backing Carl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s8mQekpakQ

"Fluke" Holland was a true stylist. He invented many of the train beats used today. Another great drummer from Tennessee.

I was watching Johnny Cash at Montreal the other day and spotted that his drummer, WS Holland, was playing open-handed. In his case he's moved the hi-hat over to the left so he's still playing with his hands the 'right way' round. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmSObDRLIfs It's a great gig and the rhythm section seem to be having at least twice as much fun as the rest of the band 😉 Also I've also update the pics for this club too.

Yes, they will. I'm feeling remarkably at one with the universe today. 2023 must have finally let me get my hooks in for the ride. Still playing open handed though...

Any cymbal will crash if you hit it hard enough 😉

Right. I tend to forget that not all e-rides have 3 zones like mine did. Did. In the past. Now I have none. 😞 But I have 12 to 14 weeks to work on rudiments! 🥁 There's the key right there. Finding what works. Every day I practice has some exploration built into it. I do what the instructor says to do first, and get that down. Then I explore different ways to accomplish the same thing. Then I make variations around the kit with it.

Thank you @Kirstin @Christine and @Davidine 🙂 I have a very basic ekit with a crash on tje left side. The ride is in between the crash and and the HH. All 3 symbles are 10 inches. All toms and snare are 8 inches. My left hand plays all 3 symbles and the right hand is always on the snare. Playing the left hand on the snare and right hand on the crash sounds interesting, though it is weird for me. But we are here to try new things every day 🙂 Thank you all

I have crashes on both sides so I use either hand when I splash, smash or crash. It is natural now but you do need get used to it so I used to practice to Mr Copelands explosive accented fills. On some eKits you can crash the ride but I think t requires a 3 zone cymbal. I don't think it matter which hand is on what as long as it works.

When I moved my ride I had a similar problem with 'Shook me all night long". But I just decided to hit the snare with my left hand 🙂

The rest of the article is solid, but I admit, this part confuses the heck out of me too. I've worked it all sorts of ways in my head and can't make sense of this. It also contradicts what he says in paragraph two of "What is open handed drumming." I think he may have got himself turned around here and didn't catch it in editing. I admit that my two hand fills are small and fit a pretty strict formula for the moment. Compared to other aspects of drumming, I'm still relatively new to fills, but I'm already being very mindful of what works vs what doesn't. I think about ways to do these short chunk fills properly or I think up ways to tailor these short chunk fills to me. When I get those down, I'll start increasing the size of the fills and the number of drums involved. Baby steps.

Thank you so much @David. It answered many questions I had in my mind in the several days 🙂

When you learn a fill for the first time you work out how you want to start it by knowing how you want to end it, specially rolls around the kit. So if you are going round the kit left to right and want to play 4 strikes on each drum you would start with your right hand so the next group of 4 starts on your right hand, rlrl - rlrl etc. If you are playing groups of threes you might want to start with your left hand like I was moving from the snare to the floor tom, lrl - rlr each time your free hand is in the right place to move to the next drum and back. That's how I practice which is different to when I play and improvise, then it's a bit more free and sometimes I get it mixed up a bit but generally the more you practice the more instinctive it becomes and your brain connects the dots. I am not thinking about sticking when I improvise but if am learning a specific fill such as say 'In the air tonight' then I practice the sticking and shape of the fill dynamically so I am used to playing it. That way no mater if I have a small kit or a large kit I can play the fill. This all takes time to hardwire in the brain, I've re-engineered how I approach everything while being a SDS, made a huge difference to my playing. When practicing fills I don't think it matters how your kit is set up or if you play open handed, it really is about knowing where you are going next, what the destination is. I'd suggest all my fills have been open handed. Where open handed playing really pays off is when you want to play a tom pattern with your snare hand as it removes the obstacle of your other arm. When I play a Latin beat with a tom pattern I typically play it on my ride so my left had can move between the snare and the tom. If I try to play the same rhythm using my HH then my right arm can get in the way. You don't et that issue with open handed playing. I'll try and shoot a better video of it and keep it short 🙂

@David thank you. I tried listening to your video and was very impressed by the your moves arround the kit 👍, though could not hear your voice (I know you know it 🙂). Does it mean I need to remember per fill how to start it? Do you have problems when it comes to jamming and improvising a fill?

@EyalI think it depends on your destination. So playing time as you are left handed you'd lead with you left however playing a full will depend where you are going on the kit and where you want to finish. It's what I was trying to explain in the video... Badly.

My dominant hand is my left hand. When playing fill on the toms clockwise it is easier to lead with the right hand, though my right hand plays the snare and not the HH or ride (my ride is on the left side).

When I play jazz I'm almost always on the ride playing open handed as many jazz players do. The vast majority of the time I lead with my dominant (right) hand. I'm confused too @Eyal. I say do what feels best for your situation. That's probably the best guideline.

Just found this article https://drumhelper.com/learning-drums/open-handed-drumming/ It says the text below and I am a bit confused. Any thoughts? Lead with Your Left Hand The biggest adjustment to make when switching to open-handed drumming is that you need to lead most grooves and fills with your left hand. This may take a while to get used to, but it’s the best way of catering to keeping your left hand on the hi-hat for grooves. If you lead with your right hand on a fill, you’ll end up playing your left hand twice in a row after crashing, and that won’t be possible at high speeds. Some grooves and fills will sound quite cool when leading with your right, but the general rule of thumb is to lead with your left with an open-hand setup.

BTW, not to hijack this post, but a quick aside related to the last student social talk... @David @Bob @Richard L I successfully sold my Roland. A church contacted me 10 minutes after I put it up on Craigslist and 20 minutes after the Church agreed that no, they don't want to pay 9k for a new VAD707, and directed their sound guy/drummer to look for used one. Divine intersection?

Sorry @David I edited the post out from under you LOL.

You illustrated exactly what I was trying to explain above. If it is logical lead with the right hand, then lead with the right. If it is logical to lead with left, do that. It took me near a year of OH for it to suddenly dawn on me that I'm not locked in, either way and my evil south paw doesn't have to matter unless I want it to. I also consider lead and dominant separate and was trying to use them specifically to make my point that OH makes it awkward to follow a particular dominant hand but crossed over isn't a limitation on choice of lead hand either.

Yep, I need to stop messing about and get this set up right... after I just change the height of my snare and add another tom... and....... 😅

I really like what I saw in the video @David. However I could barely hear your mellifluous voice.

I tend to think of Leading hand and dominant hand as 2 different things and I'm trying to break the hold of my dominent hand. I shot this earlier to try and explain what I mean, it's not great but hope it does the job lol Will I ever finish the room... no 🤣