How to Develop Your Drumming Weaknesses

As for beginning drummers, the whole concept of drumming is coordination. It's learning to do more than one thing at a time. As a child, do you remember trying to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time? That was pretty difficult at first, but then we eventually got the hang of it.

Just like patting your head and rubbing your tummy, once you get the hang of doing multiple things at once on your drum set, it then only becomes a matter of practicing to develop your skills.

Once new drummers begin to get the hang of it they begin to favor one hand over the other. This is okay to an extent, but ideally, they should try to develop both hands to their max.

If you have been playing drums for any length of time you may have already developed one hand or foot way beyond the other, leaving you some weak spots that you can improve on. For example, if you're right handed, which most of us are, our left hand and foot are obviously less inclined to do as much. Therefore, leaving them underdeveloped.

These underdeveloped hands and feet are a real menace to your skills as a great drummer more so than you may think. The fact is, once you feel free to use any hand or any foot the coordination to do something new becomes much less of a challenge.

One way for a drummer to develop his or her weak hand or foot is to make a special, concentrated effort to specifically practice and develop these.

What I do is put on a tape of my favorite songs and simply play with my left foot on my left bass drum. In the same way, I'll use my left hand to play the hi-hat instead of my right. Also, many drummers only use their dominant hand to crash cymbals, but in practice, you should use both hands.

Practicing this way can be frustrating, a little boring, and not much fun, but well worth the investment of your time. When you develop the drumming skills with your weak hand and foot to the point where they are almost as loose as your dominant hand and foot you will really excel at being a great drummer.

The whole idea is to develop your drumming skills completely. This way, you're ready for anything... and you will have more fun. So, where there's a weak spot... fix it. Don't run from frustration, embrace it! Frustration is your friend. It is showing you where you need work.

Just a quick note, it's not realistic to expect your weaker hand and foot to ever be as developed as your dominat hand and foot for obvious reasons, but developing your weaker parts will make a huge impact on your overall drumming skills and abilities.

Dan Brown

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