Kirstin

Yes indeed. Lenny White is one of my favorite open hand jazz players. Carter did an interview where he talked about the history of it and named a few of his influences going back to 1920s or thereabouts. Edit: I went hunting for pictures and it looks like Lenny only has a ride on his left side. If it is a ride.

I don't think it is weird. I keep a ride on my right side and still use it as often as I use the second ride I now have on my left. There may be good practical reasons to maintain a ride on the right, but I'm too inexperienced and still trying to figure this one out for myself. I don't think I've heard any open hander put their foot down about moving the ride. It has always been given as a piece of take it or leave it advice. My main take away from the likes of Carter Beauford or Simon Phillips who have videos on youtube about the subject, is that the biggest strength of the open handed style is that it can promote true ambidexterity.

I'll add to the list of inspirational open handers with the ride on the left or near the hats: Carter Beauford - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvgdWH5z8gY&t=36s Lenny White - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkezlJVrXas And Harry Miree. He has a very unconventional setup, but makes some good points in the second half that can be adapted to our situation. He's also funny. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nR49qEdONs&t=16s

For several months I resisted the advice that open handers 'should' move the ride to the left. Mainly because I didn't know better starting out. I was born left handed but was forced to write right handed in school with the result being a high degree of mixed handedness. My naïve self didn't know that swapping from left on the hats to right on the ride is supposed to be problematic. Not until I started hearing about it in lesson videos and I started thinking about it. Then I started second guessing myself. That said, after swapping ride to the left, then back to the right, then back to the left while still feeling dissatisfied with the results, the light came on at the edge of sleep one morning. I can have two rides! I left the electronic ride on the right and added a low volume ride on the left. It had been collecting dust under the bed and wanted to make frenz with the hi-hats. Now I feel like the universe is mine 😊 Most open handers I see, now that I'm paying attention, seem to all have a ride on the left. A large number also seem to have doubled up. So if you are feeling that slight amount of dissatisfaction about not having a ride or ride/crash over on the right, doubling up isn't unusual.