Left hand woes

I cannot figure out why my left hand is so inconsistent--besides the fact that I am right-handed. I know the ultimate solution here is to practice, but the real problem is that I'm not sure that I am practicing the right technique. That is to say, my left hand does not currently use the stick correctly, so I may just be practicing a bad habit.

I am smoothly dribbling a basketball when I use my right hand on the practice pad. The tip bounces straight up and down, hits the same spot every time, and returns to roughly the same elevation. On the other hand, my left stick jumps about in all directions after it hits the pad, and the angle at which it makes contact is often slanted, rather than vertical. Its motion feels a bit tense and stunted and my fingers feel a bit weird.

been watching a lot of YouTube videos and practicing the relevant advice on holding drumsticks in german/french/hybrid grips but I'm not sure if I am getting any better.

Can anyone give me advice on how to rectify my problematic left hand? how to make it like my right hand. maybe is it just a matter of practice. Should I just begin with very slow singles on my left hand? any specific exercises?? Any advice much appreciated.

Try using your left hand more away from the drums. Things like brushing teeth, holding a glass, throwing/catching a ball, etc.

KenDoken said:

Try using your left hand more away from the drums. Things like brushing teeth, holding a glass, throwing/catching a ball, etc.

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definitely my plan.... and kind of works into the idea that the left hand is behaving weird simply because there is not as much strength in it.

When you say you want your left to be like your right, I assume you play matches grip? I say that because I have similar issues but I play traditional grip. I have always felt it is lack of practice which means my left hand is much weaker than my right. I have found my left hand improves when I do plenty of pad work. It may simply be a matter of spending more time on the pad to strengthen your left hand.

MisterGroove said:

When you say you want your left to be like your right, I assume you play matches grip? I say that because I have similar issues but I play traditional grip. I have always felt it is lack of practice which means my left hand is much weaker than my right. I have found my left hand improves when I do plenty of pad work. It may simply be a matter of spending more time on the pad to strengthen your left hand.

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pretty much agree, although it feels as if my fingers are sort of "getting in the way" with my left hand. but, as you intimated, i can;t see any clear technical problem! i play match grip, yep,,,,,, very average on traditional, but I want to also develope that.

There are error bars doing this over an internet forum compared to actually sitting down with you and watching what you're doing, but I'd be surprised if

On the other hand, my left stick jumps about in all directions after it hits the pad, and the angle at which it makes contact is often slanted, rather than vertical.

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is actually true.

By this I mean, if you slow yourself down enough you can get the left stick to travel in a straight up-down motion, correct?

Then the problem sounds like your right hand is *so* much better than your left that the learning curve the left hand faces at the tempos you like to play at thanks to your right hand strength is basically a vertical wall.

So if it sounds like I'm on the right track, then slow way, way down. Unreasonably slow if you need to. The left hand will get better at the motions *if* you put it in an environment where it has an actual hope in hell of performing the motions. Then it's just iterative improvement and grind.

If practicing extremely slow is so boring that motivation suffers, you can try spicing things up by working on other things at the same time, like "dribbling" (playing the right foot in between notes made with the hands)

Jeff Graw said:

There are error bars doing this over an internet forum compared to actually sitting down with you and watching what you're doing, but I'd be surprised if

is actually true.

By this I mean, if you slow yourself down enough you can get the left stick to travel in a straight up-down motion, correct?

Then the problem sounds like your right hand is *so* much better than your left that the learning curve the left hand faces at the tempos you like to play at thanks to your right hand strength is basically a vertical wall.

So if it sounds like I'm on the right track, then slow way, way down. Unreasonably slow if you need to. The left hand will get better at the motions *if* you put it in an environment where it has an actual hope in hell of performing the motions. Then it's just iterative improvement and grind.

If practicing extremely slow is so boring that motivation suffers, you can try spicing things up by working on other things at the same time, like "dribbling" (playing the right foot in between notes made with the hands)

Click to expand...

yes, you are right....if i go slow enough i DEFintely. can get it into a straight line. however, dribbling the basketball (i.e. rebound with the sticks) is harder to do slower, so when i slow down I lose a bit of rebound.
and your advice....go slow....really this is the only thing that has worked in other parts of my playing. i used to go like a bull at a gate, trying to do things really fast, but i had to calm down and slow down!
thanks!!!

First, stop watching videos, stop trying to do multiple grips/techniques.

Take your copy of Stick Control, set up your practice pad in front of a mirror, and play every part of the book you can, playing the LH leading exercises for longer than the RH leading ones.

Use a simple grip and technique, watch for odd movements, and correct them.

It's really simple, it's just a matter of doing it, and of ignoring a lot of junk technique ideas.

I feel your pain! I struggle with the same issues with my left hand.

I have played for over 50 years now. I learned traditional grip, then switched mostly to matched grip. I never really tried to learn any "technique" with matched, though, and if I was unable to play an intricate figure, I switched back to trad.

In the last 5 years or so, I have been focusing on improving the left hand matched grip, and you have perfectly described the issues I've faced.

As far as I can tell, the fingers of my left hand do not make a natural, consistent fulcrum like my right hand does. You can't see it - my grips look alike - but the fingers don't propel and control the stick the same way as the right.

The single biggest thing that has helped me improve has been double stops, as suggested by @Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX . Basically, that means playing unison figures with right and left on the pad. It's boring and tedious, but it is the only thing I've tried that has provided inprovement I can both feel and measure.

It's still a struggle. My left hand still lags, but it is MUCH better since focusing on this.

As for what unison figures I practice, that varies. Accents, steady eighths. The real test for me seems to be patterns which throw in groups of three sixteenths among eighths. I can get the flow feeling right with smooth, quick eighths, but then the subtle change for the sixteenths can break my flow.

Good luck and have fun! And keep at it. I really have to be consistent, or my left hand forgets what I've learned.

Ajaycee said:

yes, you are right....if i go slow enough i DEFintely. can get it into a straight line. however, dribbling the basketball (i.e. rebound with the sticks) is harder to do slower, so when i slow down I lose a bit of rebound.
and your advice....go slow....really this is the only thing that has worked in other parts of my playing. i used to go like a bull at a gate, trying to do things really fast, but i had to calm down and slow down!
thanks!!!

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Just so there's no confusion, when I mentioned dribbling I was talking about a different concept. I don't think that was misunderstood, but just in case.

So... I guess that's another thing.

The error bars are even larger on this one, but there's huge benefit to making yourself have as little dependence on rebound as possible *and* there's also a great deal of benefit to being able to exploit and control rebound.

And rebound is one of the few things that can be much more difficult at very low tempos. You kind of need to work backwards from your sweet spot.

But, to start with I wouldn't focus on rebound at all for the left hand. Just focus on making the straight up-down motion, getting that internalized, and speeding it up. After that's moderately developed, you can bring rebound back into the equation.

I wouldn't take everything here as the be-all-end-all, and I have my own disagreements with parts of this, but watch this Henry Adler educational video, specifically the parts on developing the up-down motion. The "make the upstroke fast, as if you got a zap when you touched the drumhead" is the most important part.

toddbishop said:

First, stop watching videos, stop trying to do multiple grips/techniques.

Take your copy of Stick Control, set up your practice pad in front of a mirror, and play every part of the book you can, playing the LH leading exercises for longer than the RH leading ones.

Use a simple grip and technique, watch for odd movements, and correct them.

It's really simple, it's just a matter of doing it, and of ignoring a lot of junk technique ideas.

Click to expand...

all these youtube vids, all these lessons, jumping from one to one, feeling anxious to get to the next one, rushing..... i agree, it kinda is counterproductive. just one thing-- how important would you say mirror is?? thanks!

Stroman said:

I feel your pain! I struggle with the same issues with my left hand.

I have played for over 50 years now. I learned traditional grip, then switched mostly to matched grip. I never really tried to learn any "technique" with matched, though, and if I was unable to play an intricate figure, I switched back to trad.

In the last 5 years or so, I have been focusing on improving the left hand matched grip, and you have perfectly described the issues I've faced.

As far as I can tell, the fingers of my left hand do not make a natural, consistent fulcrum like my right hand does. You can't see it - my grips look alike - but the fingers don't propel and control the stick the same way as the right.

The single biggest thing that has helped me improve has been double stops, as suggested by @Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX . Basically, that means playing unison figures with right and left on the pad. It's boring and tedious, but it is the only thing I've tried that has provided inprovement I can both feel and measure.

It's still a struggle. My left hand still lags, but it is MUCH better since focusing on this.

As for what unison figures I practice, that varies. Accents, steady eighths. The real test for me seems to be patterns which throw in groups of three sixteenths among eighths. I can get the flow feeling right with smooth, quick eighths, but then the subtle change for the sixteenths can break my flow.

Good luck and have fun! And keep at it. I really have to be consistent, or my left hand forgets what I've learned.

Click to expand...

thanks so much!! glad to know I am not alone! do you recommend any good material with the double stops?? to be honest, never heard of them before! will be on the practice list now!!

Jeff Graw said:

Just so there's no confusion, when I mentioned dribbling I was talking about a different concept. I don't think that was misunderstood, but just in case.

So... I guess that's another thing.

The error bars are even larger on this one, but there's huge benefit to making yourself have as little dependence on rebound as possible *and* there's also a great deal of benefit to being able to exploit and control rebound.

And rebound is one of the few things that can be much more difficult at very low tempos. You kind of need to work backwards from your sweet spot.

But, to start with I wouldn't focus on rebound at all for the left hand. Just focus on making the straight up-down motion, getting that internalized, and speeding it up. After that's moderately developed, you can bring rebound back into the equation.

I wouldn't take everything here as the be-all-end-all, and I have my own disagreements with parts of this, but watch this Henry Adler educational video, specifically the parts on developing the up-down motion. The "make the upstroke fast, as if you got a zap when you touched the drumhead" is the most important part.

Click to expand...

"But, to start with I wouldn't focus on rebound at all for the left hand. Just focus on making the straight up-down motion, getting that internalized, and speeding it up. After that's moderately developed, you can bring rebound back into the equation." KILLER advice! thanks so much!! will watch vid, (but not go overboard with vids haha)

toddbishop said:

First, stop watching videos, stop trying to do multiple grips/techniques.

Take your copy of Stick Control, set up your practice pad in front of a mirror, and play every part of the book you can, playing the LH leading exercises for longer than the RH leading ones.

Use a simple grip and technique, watch for odd movements, and correct them.

It's really simple, it's just a matter of doing it, and of ignoring a lot of junk technique ideas.

Click to expand...

This. Then you might move onto G.L.Stone's book Accent and Rebound's also Stanton Moore's weak hand workout (there's a free pdf copy online).

As much as I've sparred with toddbishop in the past, I also really like his advice. Maybe for different reasons.

You can learn things by focusing on them explicitly. You can also learn things incidentally. You probably didn't explicitly develop the up-down motion on your right so much as you incidentally acquired it by just playing a lot with the right hand.

The biggest problem with learning things explicitly is that you can get distracted, lose focus, etc. and abandon that thing too soon.

When something is developed incidentally because you're *always* doing other things that reinforce that thing, then it's just a constant learning process that happens in the background, almost inevitably.

And yeah, grinding out stick control for long enough will improve your left hand motions significantly, even in the case where that isn't the intention.

It's often a good idea to attack a problem from both sides.

Ajaycee said:

thanks so much!! glad to know I am not alone! do you recommend any good material with the double stops?? to be honest, never heard of them before! will be on the practice list now!!

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Yeah, you're definitely not alone!

I don't have specific material recommendations. I've got all the standard books, but most focus on alternating patterns. You can use some of the rhythmic figures, but ignore the stickings and adapt as needed.

So, sometimes my patterns are based on measures from Stick Control, Tommy Igoe's great hands, etc. but mostly I just think of them on my own.

I started with straight eighth notes, slowly, just trying to make the left actually match the right and control those odd wobbly motions. Then I added accents. Next, I would just play a pattern like 1 + 2 + 3 +a4 +. I play each one for quite a while, up to say 5 minutes at a given tempo. And then I come up with another variation and work it up. So next I might do 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +a1e+ 2 + 3e+ 4 + .

Basically, if a pattern is hard to play, I drill on it.

I'm also really into blues shuffles, so I started doing the same exercises with shuffle patterns, changing the accents, the degree of swing, tempo, etc.

Also, as I think Todd and Jeff have both said - do these slowly until the motion is consistently right. Then incrementally increase speed. If it gets too boring, I'll play the patterns along with songs instead of the metronome.

I've been putting in significant focus on the left hand for about 5 years now. Same problems as you Ajaycee (and likely most everyone). Left hand is still not nearly like the right but SUBSTANTIALLY better than when I started. Additionally, the effort has done wonders for my single strokes & double strokes speed & general playing/coordination. The left hand, it seems, has been more of a drag on my general improvement than I realized.

I've incorporated all of the above suggestions (more general-life left hand usage, slow focus on drumming motion, unison, pad & non-rebounding work). Another thing I've found very useful and wonderfully liberating for my playing is using the left hand to ride on the hi hat or "open" playing. Started by mirroring nearly all of my beat & coordination playing with left hand ride in addition to regular right hand ride. Ghost notes with the right hand are equally as challenging as leading with the left. Playing live with bands, I started open playing on simple quarter note HH groves, then graduating to 8th notes & 8th note shuffles & spang-ga-lang with the left hand. I'm now pretty good at playing open up to tempos in the 140's and do so often at gigs and alternating between right hand ride & left hand ride at will in the same song. Some songs I always play open because the drum part lends itself to that or just from habit. It's been a really fun and rewarding "ride" (pun intended)!

Let's face it, the left hand will never be like the right which has had a lifetime of dominant use. But, there's a lot of fun & satisfaction in having the left catch up a little bit. A slow slog but worth the time & effort.

Jeff Graw said:

When something is developed incidentally because you're *always* doing other things that reinforce that thing, then it's just a constant learning process that happens in the background, almost inevitably.

Click to expand...

Jeff Graw said:

It's often a good idea to attack a problem from both sides.

Click to expand...

YES!

Ajaycee said:

all these youtube vids, all these lessons, jumping from one to one, feeling anxious to get to the next one, rushing..... i agree, it kinda is counterproductive.

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None of those guys know what you need to do right now, which is to fix your funky left hand. Even the ones making the 'fix your funky left hand' videos. And watching a video isn't doing it.

Ajaycee said:

just one thing-- how important would you say mirror is?? thanks!

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It's a lot easier to see what you're doing with the mirror.

Stroman said:

Also, as I think Todd and Jeff have both said - do these slowly until the motion is consistently right. Then incrementally increase speed. If it gets too boring, I'll play the patterns along with songs instead of the metronome.

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Or keep the TV on... in the background, just so time doesn't stop altogether.

toddbishop said:

Or keep the TV on... in the background, just so time doesn't stop altogether.

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I actually do this, too (a thousand thank-you's to my long-suffering and tolerant Mrs Stroman)!

I just wasn't sure if I should suggest it. Didn't want to cause relationship strife. Lol