Good book for strengthening my left hand and rudiments?

[T_Weaves]

Thanks in advance. All my appendages are pretty strong drumming wise with the exception of my left hand. It's "decent" but I'd like to really push to make it better. I'm a rock/funk/soul player who uses matched grip if that helps. Not looking to become a jazzer but rather just to make the left hand better.

Cheers,
Todd

 

[JDA]

Stick Control (you Must/Have to have that? the Book the physical page Book (not no virtual whatever thing)
Ok? that'll build it up and.there's rolls ruffs and flams- not laid out like rudiments- but are thru out the later pages (better in some ways) . Old fashioned man! ( was 100 years ahead of its time +/-

 

[Chalmers]

From @toddbishop

World's simplest solution to the left hand sucking: get Accents & Rebounds and play these exercises-- accent on cymbal, add bass drum in unison; non-accent on snare drum. Drill for 15 minutes every day for 4-8 weeks, bango, no more weak left hand.

(My addition)Left foot playing your choice and for right hand accuracy at the same time, play 1/8’s on ride/accents on bell unisons

 

[toddbishop]

From @toddbishop

World's simplest solution to the left hand sucking: get Accents & Rebounds and play these exercises-- accent on cymbal, add bass drum in unison; non-accent on snare drum. Drill for 15 minutes every day for 4-8 weeks, bango, no more weak left hand.

(My addition)Left foot playing your choice and for right hand accuracy at the same time, play 1/8’s on ride/accents on bell unisons

Thanks for mentioning that. There are some things I do with Dahlgren & Fine that take this further, for developing actually using the LH more on the drum set.

For general conditioning just do the LH lead exercises in Stick Control-- 2x a much as RL ones. Use a mirror and check your technique and stick heights. That doesn't necessarily lead directly to using your left hand more effectively when playing music though.

The solution isn't complicated, but you do have to do it.

 

[jakeo]

I'm finding Gaddiments is helping - lots of flams really expose my LH weakness. It's getting better.

 

[cworrick]

^^^

Like Todd said, "using the LH more on the drumset"

Someone once told me to strengthen the weaker hand, you have to use it 9X more than the stronger hand.

That's a bit excessive. However you DO need to use the weaker hand more, and smarter, to get to the level you want.

1. When you are practicing single hand exercises, start with your left hand, then do your right, and back to the left. Basically using the left hand 2x as much as your right. Practice accents and rebounds and other control exercises to develop BOTH hands while working your weak hand more than your strong hand.

2. When you are practicing hand to hand exercises, Start, and lead with your left hand. This will improve your control. Too many times when you lead with your dominant hand the weak one just follows along and tries to keep up. By switching you will be developing more strength, CONTROL, AND COORDINATION with your weak hand.

3. Try to do a few ordinary day to day, non drum related things, with your weak hand. This will also help build up the skills you want in your left hand.

4. On drumset play open handed with the hi-hat as much as possible to build up your weak hand.

These are just a few ideas that worked for me and some other drummers I know.

 

[wolfereeno]

Tommy Igoe 21 minute Jazz ramp with left hand lead.

21 Minute Jazz Ramp by Tommy Igoe?

Anyone else a fan of this exercise? It's on Groove Essential 1.0's CD but I rarely see much talk about it. To me its worth the price of the book. It's 21 minutes of play along bass and piano playing a simple jazz progression that for each repetition speeds up from super slow to super fast...

www.drumforum.org

Exercises that switch lead between L and R
RLRRLL RLRRLL RLRRLL RLRR
LRLLRR LRLLRR LRLLRR LRLL

Alan Dawson rudimental ritual has tons of these plus enough other complexities to distract you so you internalize it. It's hard and can take years to get good at. But even if you just did the hands, it's great. Igoe Life Time Warmup is kind of a subset and I like that it takes 10 mins or less.

Accents of all types for left hand.
Lllr
lLlr
llLr
...

Things like Joe Morello, Stick Control variations, and Dom Famularo weaker side book are just too repetitive for me. I can't play something that would take me 20 minutes to do a single page. ...I tried doing the stone killer and similar for years. I hated it and didn't really accomplish much. The rudimental ritual engages the brain a bit more.

 

[T_Weaves]

Cool, thanks fellas.

 

[Sinclair]

Here's one of my LH exercises. Easy to understand (with directions at bottom..but challenging.
Helps with some other skills at the same time. Hope it helps.

 

[Matched Gripper]

Cool, thanks fellas.

Practice everything with right and left hand lead. If you have Stick Control, it does it for you.

Practice left hand lead on drum set.

Pick a technique method teacher like Gordie Knudtson or Bill Bachman and work on your technique.

 

[jakeo]

Here's one of my LH exercises. Easy to understand (with directions at bottom..but challenging.
Helps with some other skills at the same time. Hope it helps.

View attachment 567931

Love this - thanks Sinclair!