

2 As a beginner, you’ll benefit greatly by learning to both cross over and play open-handed.
LEARN TO MPLAY DRUMS FULL
In open-handed playing (non-crossed-over), the wrists/ arms operate within a full range of motion.

The logic here is that the strong hand can better handle the speed and endurance required in hi-hat playing. Openhanded When playing rock or funk beats, most drummers cross their dominant stick over to the hi-hat while crossing their non-dominant hand to the snare (normally right over left). Because you can’t move your right wrist, you’ll propel the stick using only your fingers.Ĭrossed Over vs. Next, grab ahold of your right wrist with your left hand. To get a feel for this, hold your right stick using the French grip. Incorporating your fingers in the playing motion - along with the wrists - is another important technique. To learn to avoid this, grab your right forearm with your left hand, thereby immobilizing your right arm. To avoid unnecessary cognitive dissonance, you might want to wait to learn traditional grip until you’ve become comfortable with matched.Īrm, Wrist, And Fingers At first, some beginners have a tendency to inefficiently use their arms to propel the sticks, instead of their wrists. The traditional fulcrum (non-dominant hand only) is located in the fleshy webbing between your thumb and pointer finger (instead of between two or three of the fingers in matched).Īlso, instead of the more familiar up and down motion of matched, traditional uses a completely different motion - an underhand rotation of the forearm - to produce the stroke. Traditional Beginners often find traditional grip more challenging to pick up than matched. Ideally I would like to take some lessons first as I would like to find someone that can help me play the stuff that's in my head, but I guess any teacher would do if I'm just starting out, right?.Īnyway, I really want to give this a shot and take it as a serious hobby, I feel I owe it to myself so I appreciate any advice you can give me!.Matched vs. I also live in an apt complex so for now an electronic kit is my only choice I guess, I just have no idea what I should get.

I also used to annoy everyone at the office whenever I started drumming in my desk with pens, chopsticks, whatever.anyway, it might sound stupid but I tend to "feel" rhythms very passionately, I simply can't control myself sometimes when I hear some of my favorite drummers/songs/etc.Īnyway I am a bit on the fence about getting a drum kit because even though I've done some research online, I'm still not sure what kind of kit I should get. I find myself constantly thinking and coming up with rhythms in my head and I often can't stop myself air drumming whenever I hear some of my favorite songs/drum parts, which can be a bit embarrassing when I'm in public. I'm 31 and I've always wanted to learn the drums, this might sound silly but ever since I was 10 years old I've had a passion for drums (and bass!) even though (due to life getting in the way) I've never even touched a drumstick (or any instrument whatsoever) in my life!.
