Drum Exercises For Strengthening The Weaker Left Hand

Its a real pain in the bum when the weaker hand can't keep up with the stronger. I'm constantly battling with this so I thought it would be cool to discuss some really simple exercises that I use to overcome this problem.

They're pretty obvious really and can be deceptively simple until played at a faster tempo. Try to ensure that you use the wrist and not the arm and that your grip is loose and relaxed.

RLL
RLLL

Another great idea, that I happen to have got from Virgil Donati, is to play the following stickings around the kit. Again, make sure that you use the full wrist movement and that your grip is loose and relaxed. Each sticking suggestion is to be played on a different sound source (including cymbals if you like) and try to aim for the centre of each drum.

LL
LLL
LLLL
LLLLLL
LLLLLLLL

The same goes for these stickings except both hands get a go on each sound source until moving to the next.

RRLL
RRRLLL
RRRRLLLL
RRRRRRLLLLLL
RRRRRRRRLLLLLLLL

After 20 minutes doing these babies you should start to feel a difference in your weak hand.

Be careful not to hurt yourself though, you should stop for a rest if you start to feel your wrist hurting. This will probably be being caused by either hitting too hard, going too fast too soon, bad stick grip/technique or holding the sticks too hard.

All of these exercises can also be used as excellent warm ups before the gig or practice

session!