– Hi there. Clauss Hessler here. We are discussing five benefits
of open handed playing. So what I just did for you
was a little improvised groove thing in which
I would make use of the freedom that
I suddenly have. So talking about freedom, that's
actually the first benefit that goes with open
handed playing. I can go wherever I
want on the set, and, and create sounds in that
corner of the drum set, create sounds in that
corner of the drum set, and I'm never in my
way by crossing hands. So this freedom
that I finally have is also something that
allows me to interact with, with toms well and keeping
a groove going on the hi hat or on the cowbells, so
that really is something, something completely
cool to have. Another benefit for me is
the ergonomics of the kit. Now, even if I use that
remote hi hat here, and I bring in the toms,
the toms are kind of on the far side of what I'm
doing so I personally prefer to bring in the toms
when I'm leading with my left hand on the hi hat.
So the ergonomic
situations with the, bring in that set
around me in a, in a real nice signature
setting I should say, that's something that
I enjoy and I'm seated behind this thing in the
most comfortable way, there are no twists
or whatever turns that I have to do in
order to be able to reach the things properly. It's all there where
I want it to be. Another thing is, number
three, playing open handed forces you to be creative. And when I say creative
I'm talking about creativity as an
act of rebellion. Creativity always means you
have to break a certain rule, whatever the rule is.
We might discuss the
aspect that before you can break the rules, you
have to know them, but, I assume most of you
have been playing for some amount of
time in that position. So breaking that rule and
now exploring your drum set in a different way will
be something that for sure helps your creativity
because you have to come up with different solutions for
what you do around the kit.
And, saying that, I also should point out
that it helped a lot with the, with my
musical identity. Now if you listen
to me playing and, and if you listen to
other open handed players like Billy Cobham or Simon
Phillips or Will Kennedy, or Dom Famularo, they
all have their, say, personal trademark,
it's all players that you easily recognize, after like two or
three bars you notice, oh okay that must be Cobham,
or that must be Simon Phillips so having that musical identity
and finding your sound, that's also something
where open handed playing is really a great thing for. Now, finally it also
brings more balance to what you do with your hands. Now putting equal amount of
workload to both of your hands, left and right,
helps you to be able to express yourself
without any challenges because you're like
leveling the skills from right and left hand, which
is a very cool thing to have and makes a lot of
sense for an instrument for which you need two
hands and two feet, okay.
So that's very clear. And, I should wrap this thing
up with the fifth benefit which is, you're
exploring your instrument from a totally
different point of view. It's almost like you
read a good book twice and make yourself feel
it was the first time. And that's what happened for me and I should say when I
started playing open handed as a kid at age of
four or whatever, I did not have the
idea to cross my hands and I think no kid does
that, apart from those kids who have a brother, sister,
uncle, father, whatever who plays the drums
and they saw that.
But when I started the drums
I didn't have a teacher so I started playing
like that, so kid logic, in that sense, is
something that says a lot about playing open handed. Now, if you're interested
in knowing more about the issue you
might check out my books or you might go to
the Drumeo website and we've filmed a complete
course on open handed playing that gives you exercises and
demonstrations on the topic so I would highly
recommend that and, boy, that's it so far. Check out open handed playing
and I hope you'll like it. Thank you so much for
watching and that's it. Thank you, bye bye..