For some drummers, starting out with an open handed approach was the most natural, even on a conventional right handed drum kit setup. Regardless of how you started playing, developing open handed drumming can unlock new avenues for drum beats that may not have been possible otherwise.
Open handed drumming makes a lot of sense when you forget about how most drummers approach the drum set. It’s based on the idea that your arms do not cross when playing the drums and cymbals. When your arms are not crossing one another, you’re able to access more of the drum set at all times.
This approach to drum technique makes it easier to maintain a cymbal pattern while adding snare drum and tom rhythms, for example. Perhaps you want to keep the hi-hat rhythm going, yet you want to play a snare hit followed by two tom hits. With your arms crossed, this can be very awkward.
It should not feel more natural to play the hi-hat with one arm crossed over the other. But many drummers, like me, watched their heroes do it and wanted to do it, too.
I’m wondering why John Bonham didn’t play open-handed. Or, what about Buddy Rich? Before we get into pros who do play open-handed and you can develop this technique, let’s explore the origins of this approach to playing the drum set.
Origins of Open Handed Drumming
It’s not possible to place a name on the first open handed drummer. But drummers like Billy Cobham and Dennis Wilson are a couple of the early more well-known musicians who played open handed.
The basic concept of open handed drumming is in direct relation to the conventional drum set setup. In other words, left-handed drummers who approach a right-handed setup have left us overhanded players with a lot to think about.
So why did drummers ever play hi-hat with their right and on the left side of the drum kit? We need to look into the history of the drum set for the answer to this question.
Evolution of the Drum Set and Open Handed Drumming
Drum set playing originally came from military drumming via the bandstand. Early American band music was performed with percussionists that applied march-style techniques to the concert drums.
Drummers played with the left hand cradling the drumstick. This technique facilitated playing a drum that was angled down and to the right as they marched. Today, we call this traditional grip.
When individual drummers began playing multiple instruments simultaneously, they began playing the cymbal with the right hand. This meant that the left hand played a snare drum with the traditional grip, and the cymbal was placed on the right.
The Development of Foot Pedals and the Hi-Hat Stand
As drum set hardware was further developed to facilitate a single drummer playing multiple instruments, new designs like the low boy came into view. The low boy was two cymbals arranged so that a foot pedal could bring one down to meet the other.
As the story goes, drummer Baby Dodds requested that the hardware be extended high enough to reach with sticks. This was the beginning of the hi-hat stand.
Playing The Hi-Hat With The Right Hand
Drummers mostly arranged the drums around the bass drum. The kick drum pedal was accessible by the right foot, leaving the low boy or sock cymbals to be played with the left foot.
Combine this setup evolution and the traditional technique, and we can begin to understand why drummers played the hi-hat with their right hand crossed over their left. It may have been otherwise less comfortable to play the hi-hat with the left handed traditional grip.
A lot of drummers play matched grip. This means that both hands are gripping the drumstick in the same way. Some open handed drummers chose to play the hi-hat on the left with their left hand.
Thus, open handed drumming had begun.
Setting Up Your Drum Set for Open Handed Drumming
The drum setup is not as restricted with open handed playing. You don’t need to place any of the cymbals, or drums, in specific places because of the traditional grip technique issues.
Drummers can place hi-hats on the left or right, snare drums forward or on the side, and toms can be placed wherever you want. For many drummers, this means having two or three snare drums and ride cymbals and hi-hat setups on both sides of the drum kit.
This freedom to place instruments in various places is further facilitated with all of the hardware options available today. The drum rack, for example, allows you to place cymbals, drums, and percussion almost anywhere.
Furthermore, pedal hardware, like the remote hi-hat, and clamping systems have come a long way. These new designs make it easier to place and position your instruments exactly where you want them, especially if you’re concerned about ergonomics.
Hi-Hat Stand Options
The remote hi-hat system changed the game for open drummers because it meant the cymbals could be placed almost anywhere. It’s a foot pedal connected to a cable that activates the top hi-hat rod.
Most drummers place their hi-hat on the left, right, or center. Some drummers add hi-hats to both sides of their drum kits to incorporate different sounds and rhythmic opportunities.
Related: How to Set Up a Hi-Hat – Cymbal and Hardware Do’s and Don’ts
The remote hi-hat is great for drummers who want to adapt their playing to open handed drumming. It doesn’t interrupt the coordination they’ve developed with their feet because the pedal can remain on the left. The only difference is the location of the hi-hat itself, which can be right, center, or up high like Mike Mangini (see below).
Remote hi-hats, whether they are pedal actuated or not, have certainly inspired an increase in cymbal stacking.
Cymbal Stacks
Cymbal stacks are basically the closed hi-hat sound. A lot of drummers add multiple stacks of various sizes and on different sides of the kit. These various places, like the remote hi-hat, can lead to more creative opportunities with open handed drumming.
Arranging Toms and Percussion
The toms are traditionally placed high to low, left to right. Left handed setups, like Phil Collins’, reverse this order. Left handed players who approach a right handed kit with an open style technique arrange the toms in many different ways.
You can set up your toms high to low alternating left to right, for example. This approach matches the alternating movement around the kit. Or, you could just place a floor tom on the left side of the kit to increase opportunities on that side of the kit.
Modern hardware options, like drum racks, make setting up toms and cymbals anywhere around the kit very easy.
Related: 10 Essential Percussion Add Ons for Drum Set
Benefits of Open Handed Drumming
Moving freely around the drum set is the most important benefit of open handed drumming. If you play a cymbal with your left hand on the left side of the drum kit, you can access all of the drums and cymbals on the right side without having to move your body in a weird way.
The ergonomics of playing with one arm crossed over the other can be a bit limiting. Your arms and shoulders sometimes need to be moved in awkward positions to reach instruments on the drum set. This isn’t the case with open handed drumming.
Open handed drumming balances the use of your hands. This approach to drum technique places equal workload on your right and left hands. Execution of your ideas becomes a lot easier when your hands are available and ready to play without a dominant hand always leading the way.
With the free and comfortable movement around the drum set, your creativity has fewer obstacles. You can try more complex patterns with overlapping layers. Or you could try moving rhythms you would normally play to different drums, cymbals, or percussion.
How to Develop Open Handed Drumming
Go slow. Try simple beats that you’ve mastered with over hand hi-hat technique. Listen to how the drum beat sounds and feels. Relax into the simple beat by playing along to some tunes.
Related: Drum Patterns … lot’s beat building ideas
If you want to start exploring movement around the drum kit, move the inner beats from the snare to the toms.
Paradiddles are always a hit on the drum set, and if your hands are even on the practice pad, you will have similar results on the kit. Play paradiddles with one hand on the hi-hat and the other on the snare drum. Start the pattern with whatever hand is playing hi-hat.
You can experiment further with the paradiddle concept by moving some of the hand playing drums to different drums. Then, move the hand playing the hi-hat to some percussion or other sounds nearby.
Once you get your hands doing some new things, work your feet into the exercises by shifting the kick drum a sixteenth in any direction.
If you want to take your coordination to the next level, try reading a page from a method book like Syncopation or The New Breed. Use one of the systems shown below, or one like it, to play with your hands while playing a reading exercise on the kick drum.
Professionals Who Practice Open Handed Drumming
A lot of professional drummers use both left and right hands to play a variety of seemingly unlimited rhythmic possibilities. But some drummers, like Steve Gadd, do not play open handed as their primary approach to the instrument.
The following list of players includes drummers who I have admired over the years and what I learned from observing their open handed drumming.
Carter Beauford
Since I started playing drum set in the early-to-mid ’90s, Carter Beauford was the first drummer who I noticed playing open handed. I was fascinated by how he incorporated the toms into so many of his drum beats.
If you’re not familiar with Carter’s playing, check out #41. He plays some tasteful and original beats with ride and hi-hat going on the left and snare and toms on the right.
Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham’s always amazed me by the different drum kit configurations he used. His toms are often set up in a different way, and his top hi-hat cymbal is close to the same height as the batter head on his snare.
My introduction to Billy Cobham was the Burning for Buddy DVD. He was the only drummer who showed up and didn’t want to know the song before the session. I think he played “Milestones” with the band and nailed it.
That display of confidence, humility, and utter creativity made a huge impression on me. Up until then, I had thought Carter Beauford would be the biggest influence on me. Little did I know that there was this whole other world of professional drummers that could sound great the first time playing a tune and be just as creative.
Simon Phillips
Like Billy Cobham, my introduction to Simon Phillips was on the Burning for Buddy DVD (source). His technique, timing, and creativity were amazing to me.
Simon made the decision to play open handed early on in his technique development. The reason was not because it felt more natural to him. He really just wanted to fit a high tom into his drum set without the hi-hat being in the way.
This meant lowering the hi-hat and switching from over handed technique to open hand. As Simon developed this technique, he found that the rest of the drum set was more accessible and that, as he calls it, it was a more elegant way to play.
Mike Mangini’s Open Handed Drumming Setup
Mike’s setup is very different from the rest of the drummers on this list. He achieves a drum set symmetry in his drum kit setup that is very apparent in his tom and cymbal arrangements.
He almost never crosses his hands and uses the remote hi-hat system on his right and left to accommodate every part for every song.
Harry Miree’s Unique Open Handed Setup
Harry’s setup is the most unique on this list. He takes advantage of modern hardware like the remote hi-hat cable system and double pedal to arrange his drums and cymbals.
His drum kit setup is that of a left-handed player but he plays open handed. He still uses his left foot for the remote hi-hat pedal and his main kick is the double pedal slave played with his right foot.
I know. It’s different.
Most importantly, Harry’s explanation of open handed drumming is the best, so we will close out the article with his thoughts.
With open handed drumming, “you have access to the whole kit while still maintaining the groove.”