Open Hand Drummer List

Ben Perowsky - Great drummer!

Open handed playing is very natural position-wise - Gary Chester used to say that if a four year old sat down behind a right handed kit, they would play the hihat with their left hand!
 
photon said:
I was watching an AC/DC concert on TV a few weeks back. I don't know who the drummer is (Phil Rudd?) but it appeared to me that he had his hi-hat set up in the ride cymbal position...maybe he had two hi-hats but he appeared to be using that one the most...but that's still not open handed in my opinion.
That was Chriss Slade, now they got Phil Rudd back!...in black 8)
 
cornelius said:
Ben Perowsky - Great drummer!

Open handed playing is very natural position-wise - Gary Chester used to say that if a four year old sat down behind a right handed kit, they would play the hihat with their left hand!

Which is what I do...
 
That's my point....open handed playing means to me (for a dominant right handed drummer) playing your high hat with your left hand........that being said I would like to try a remote high hat and set it up in the ride cymbal position on the right because that would really free things up a lot...
 
jpekarek said:
I play almost exclusively open handed. I have a set of hats on the right with a remote cable for a left foot pedal, I have it right next to my ride cymbal. For me, this is more comfortable and provides some new options.

cool idea.
............................
 
Matt Abts.

He plays with Gov't Mule. Check out "The deep end vol. 2", it's a two-cd set that comes with a DVD of the concert, including a cool drum solo. My buddy showed it to me and I think my style is similar to Matt's, only he plays open-handed. It's cool.
 
In my experience open handed simply means that the arms are not crossing. It should not be confused with left-hand lead. When a right handed drummer plays plays a ride cymbal, he IS playing open-handed. I mean just look at him!!! His hands are OPEN.

What guys like Dom Famularo and Simon Phillips do is play open handed with a left hand lead.
 
Gene Holgan plays open handed, suprised nobody's said him yet!
 
BWACK of The David Crowder Band, plays open handed. He has his ride beside his Hi Hat. He has a very powerful sound live. Check out some of their stuff, it's pretty cool.

Here is a picture I took of BWACK in Nashville this past November.
 

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RMS said:
Matt Abts.

He plays with Gov't Mule. Check out "The deep end vol. 2", it's a two-cd set that comes with a DVD of the concert, including a cool drum solo. My buddy showed it to me and I think my style is similar to Matt's, only he plays open-handed. It's cool.

"The Deepest End" is the live CD with DVD. I have watched that DVD probably a million times! Matt Abts is really weird when it comes to open handed playing, he does it a lot on that DVD, but when I say them in February or 05 he played open handed rarely, then when I saw them in June 05, I don't recall him playing open handed at all. Then other times I watch footage from early 2000 and he played almost exclusively open handed. I think he is the kind of drummer that can play either really well, and switches between the two as he pleases. Which I find very impressive, compared to most drummers who are strictly one of the other.
 
Minnemann does it.

Lang can do it, but he chooses not to because he thinks that if you play openhanded your not as locked into a groove as if you cross your arms to the HiHat.

I have some grooves going open handed, but I really don´t see any reason why I should get more into that. Many other things to practise out there....

BTW: What is "Monkey cross arm stuff" that trad. players do?!? You mean cross stickings?? Matched plyers do that too. It just looks better with trad. grip imo.
 
Simon Phillips started with open-handed the same time he started with double bassdrums which was in the mid 70s.

Here is his kit. As you can, hihat is very low ( leading with the left of course! ) and the ride to the left also. Simon was one to inspired me to play open-handed.

drumkitgreen3.jpg
 
Sticktrick said:
BTW: What is "Monkey cross arm stuff" that trad. players do?!? You mean cross stickings?? Matched plyers do that too. It just looks better with trad. grip imo.

The fisrt teacher I had said I held the sticks like a monkey, I was given sticks open handed and was told to play, not being a drummer, I naturally played like a 4 year old behind the kit. Being left handed this is comfortable for me. I was deemed the "uncrossed monkey" by my classmates and I in returned called them "cross-armed monkeys". It is not meant as an insult just an observation of how animal like we really are. lol

"If you hand a monkey two sticks how is going to hold them?", Like me.
 
I happen to know the drummer for Coheed and Cambria plays open handed. He's really a hard hitter. His setup is pretty cool and strangly short. Always seems like the more hard rock a drummer is the higher his cymbals get buy his was all "normal".
 
Dannar said:
"The Deepest End" is the live CD with DVD.

Thanks for the correction...my buddy had showed it to me and I asked him what it was called...I guess I was a little off. But I had the drummer's name right, and I was all excited to rush home and look him up on Drummerworld...but alas, he is still on the wish list.
But yeah about Matt Abst, in the DVD his kit is set up up very much like mine, and our styles are so similar but he was able to do more with less effort by playing open handed, sounds like it was a gradual transition, possibly explaining why he doesn't always play like that.
 
Why is it called open-handed?

How can you hold the sticks if your hands are open?.......

Just kidding around..........


Dap.
 
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