Left Hand

What is the best exercise to do with the left hand in traditional grip to develop flexibility, fast stokes without loosing power...?

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Originally posted by in_the_pocket:
What is the best exercise to do with the left hand in traditional grip to develop flexibility, fast stokes without loosing power...?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Down, tap, up. The Moeller Technique.

Jim Chapin has a great video on the subject.

See ya.

Vic Firth has a few w/ Dom and Jim.


http://www.vicfirth.com/education/dr...mfamularo.html

Take a risk and lead with the
left-hand on the high-hat on all
your rhythms.

[img]cool.gif[/img]

I had severe tendonitis in my right hand from swinging a pick axe, and went to the doctor, who said, "Unless you want surgery, put the hand/wrist in a splint, and DONT use it!". Unfortunately, I had a gig that night. Luckily, it was a blues gig, with mostly shuffles, and rock beats. So, instead of cancel the gig, I set my ride cymbal low, and left, just over my hi-hat, which was also set up much lower, and played the whole gig with my left hand only. (Actually, my bandmates said they liked it alot, presumably because I was handcuffed from over playing!)

However, by the end of the night, I noticed an amazing increase in facility with my left hand. I was easily shuffling between hi-hat, and snare, and my left hand power/motion had become much more efficient. So, I would recommend just using your left hand, to do doubles, singles, snare/bass doubles, snare/bass singles, move around the toms with your left hand only, etc... The more that brain to left-hand command path is excercised, the better the left hand/arm is able to carry things out........

Cool, Dave!

My playing open started with an
injury, much like that.

Up until two years ago, I played
right handed lead my whole career
on the drums. Now, I play totally
left-handed lead.

[img]cool.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 18, 2004 09:30 PM: Message edited by: peter c ]</font>

First of all, you have to 'stretch' your left wrist. Play rebound strokes on your practice pad then, gradually, try to raise your left stick the most you can. You have to be relaxed while doing this or you'll hurt yourself. You'll see a huge difference if you keep doing this everyday for an extended period of time.

To gain 'articulation' in your playing, you have to practice accent/tap exercices like this one:

Vic Firth Student Center
http://www.vicfirth.com/education/ex...accenttap2.htm

Start this thing very slowly. Make sure the accented notes are very loud and the taps (or ghost notes) are as soft as possible. Articulate every note! Remember that your hand speed will come with articulation/control exercises. Good luck!

P.S.: Don't worry if you see words that you never saw before, my english sucks!

I've been working on my left hand as well. I've been exercising by doing paradiddles and then moving to the high hat -- doing the left hand there and the right on the snare, or anywhere else. I start slow and then work faster and faster. Then I switch to riding the high hat with my left hand (as was mentioned above). All this seems to be working.

Benny - Great story, man! That effect you described reminds me of something I heard Mangini say. He said that for a while he practiced with his kit set up for a left-hander, and just tried getting basic grooves and things together. After a few weeks of this, he went back to a right-handed kit, and was amazed at how much his right-handed facility had increased, even though he wasn't practicing right-handed. His words were that his "brain was sending the signals to my hands and feet with much more 'wattage.'"

For example, by practicing a left foot lead on the bass drum, he indirectly increased the speed of his RIGHT foot. I did a little asking around, and it sounds like this is a legitimate psychological effect. I guess it doesn't really help get your left hand faster, but it's kind of a neat way to try to improve technical facility.

Samuel - What are you talking about!?!? You're English looks great to me! It's better than most people who speak English as their first language! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

Oh damn, what a shock!

Thanks [img]smile.gif[/img]

After years of using traditional grip, I'm now beginning to go back and examine the left hand. I've found that I've really had a very weak fulcrum without even realizing it for however many years. As a result, I've been practicing squeezing the stick a little tighter so that the stupid thing will stop constantly slipping all over the place. It's frustrating because there seems to be such a fine line with squeezing it too hard (resulting in pain the next day) and just hard enough so that the grip facilitates rebound and the stick won't slip. Anyone have experience with this in a developmental sense?

I started to focus on traditional grip about 10 - 12 years ago, but I think I?ve only been playing it somewhat ?correctly? for about three years. Weckl?s new Evolution videos really helped me solve some problems with that grip.

Until I saw the video, I emulated Weckl's "old" left hand grip where the thumb sort of ?behind? the stick. With this grip, the stick was always sliding out of my hand, no matter how hard I gripped it. I didn?t care, though, my goal was just to try to look as cool as Dave!!!

The improvement for me involved some new concepts from the Evolution videos: the "cradle" position, the "lock" between the thumb and the palm, and the idea of having the thumb "over" the stick rather than "behind" it. It?s kind of difficult to explain in words, but I thought he did a great job of conveying the ideas in that video.

Even after a few years, I still can't believe how these simple changes have improved my grip in the left hand. Even if the sticks are slick or have a lacquer finish (like Weckl's Evolution stick), I still don't have to grip very tightly at all. I?ve never had pain in the left hand (traditional or matched grip). However, I do sometimes get what I think it tendonitis on top of my right hand when trying to play one-handed 16-ths on the hi-hat, a la Jeff Porcaro.

The next challenge for me with the traditional grip is something Louie pointed out (from his lesson with Thomas Lang). I was over-doing the ?thumb-only? aspect of the left hand. This is great for big backbeats, but it?s a lot of work to get the stick to cooperate when you are moving quickly around the toms. I need to get the first two fingers to control the stick more (like a ?claw? as Louie pointed out). Carl Allen told me the same thing a few years ago in a lesson, but I didn?t really get what he was saying at the time?..I guess I overdosed on the Gruber approach!!

Thanks Mja. I've been trying to grasp what Weckl means by "on top of the stick" for a while now. I still don't get it. Can you or anyone else illustrate the whole "behind" and "on top of the stick" concept a tad further?