Mark

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

2 hours ago, Kirstin said:

@Eyal I'm posting this embarrassing video for you, as promised. After a few failed starts with the phone and general lack of equipment, I decided this would be a drum only recording with my laptop. No talking. Hopefully you can still pick out what is going on.  The video amuses me because after so many false starts I was getting anxiety and my tempo suffered. My right leg is also doing its best to drag me up to the tempo I normally play this at 😅.

Basically, I do the most basic drum beat with non-stop 8ths on the hats. 1 and 3 on the bass, 2 and 4 on the snare. Anytime I hit beat 3 on the bass, play the rack toms on the & of 3 and the & of 4 while maintaining the snare drum on 4. then rinse and repeat.

Then I begin adding the floor tom which is on beat 1 with the bass drum. Then add the right crash on the & of 1.  The left hand crash gets added on the & of 2. So inspired by the first half of @Stephen's lesson but still a work in progress.  Also, if you want to make life interesting, play quarter notes on the hats. Then it becomes an independence exercise between your hands. That is how I normally play it.

Next challenge to myself is to partition the kit Claus Hessler style and play the same thing, only the right hand is not allowed to cross centerline. Left hand has to maintain the hats, the left tom, and the left hand crash. And maybe, in certain instances, the snare 😨Gonna be fun!

For demonstration purposes, I put a lot of gap in between each round so you have time to digest what you are seeing. One way or another, I hope this gives you some ideas. 
 

 

I am absolutely going to incorporate this into my practice session, thanks!

I am right-handed and switched to open handed playing. Give it a go, it could be very liberating for you. You will probably catch on pretty fast. A lot of people say they wished they started open handed, here is your chance, if you so desire.

Kirstin,

I am very much an amateur, but I have noticed that I can be more creative with open handed drumming and maybe those ‘traditional’ fills don’t come out. I think that might be what you are getting at. At this point in my journey I am purposely NOT trying to emulate any drummer and I am just seeing what comes out on my own. Later on I will be more intentional and get ideas from the ‘greats.’ I have too many foundational skills to work on at this point.

Kristin, 

Can you explain a bit more what you are referring to? I am a bit lost, pardon my ignorance.

Mark

Simon is amazing, such a humble gentleman as well.

I will definitely check out the videos and see what the pros do. Is it weird if I keep the ride on the right and hit the snare with my left? Does anyone else do that?

I am right-handed, too but left my ride on the right. I play it with my right hand and switch the snare to the left hand. I’ll probably move it later, but it’s working out fine so far. I am trying to keep everything as flexible as possible as long as I am not crossing my arms. The drums are so much fun to play and so much to learn!

Hey,  just a quick introduction about me. I have been learning the drums ‘seriously’ for about a year. I switched to open handed drumming early on because it just made way more sense to me. It literally opens things up and is much more ergonomically beneficial. I hope we can learn from one another! Thanks for setting this up!