[Drums] Lefty mode to train my left hand?

[Erinan]

Hey guys, I'm quite rubbish at drumming with my left hand (the right one is fine, thank you for asking) and, looking at a few videos of left-handed people playing on lefty mode, I was wondering if, as a right-handed player, that would help me train my left hand? Or would it be just too confusing? Have anyone of you done it?

[ForgottenHero]

The song that helped me was "Casey Jones" by the Grateful Dead. It helped loosen up my left arm, I'm still not as good with my left as my right, but I'm definitely better.

I think going into lefty mode would be a bit too drastic, but that's just my opinion.

[cromartie90000]

A guy at work is a drummer in real life. He told me when he played rockband for the first time, it was at a rock band party at a friend's house. Someone had changed it to lefty flip and when he played, he nearly FC'd Enter Sandman on expert (first time playing it.) Then someone pointed out it was on lefty flip, so he switched it back to right handed and DIED. (He's right handed.)

[krammkracker]

Well with lefty flip (being right handed) you get the feeling of playing the hi-hat and snare cross-handed...atleast I did LOL. (Blue=right, green=left)

[Erinan]

I think going into lefty mode would be a bit too drastic, but that's just my opinion.
Well, you know, I'd be forced to use my left hand a lot more at least :D

I'll have a look at "Casey Jones", thanks. To better illustrate my problem, I'll take "Message in a bottle" as an example: at some point you have to hit red and blue at the same time, immediately followed by another red, and I can't simply do that. Maybe if I just practiced this part...

[dena_b]

I am left handed, but didn't realize you could switch drums to Lefty Mode. Now when I try a song in Lefty mode, I can't play it at all. To used to right-handed, not wrong-handed.

[Kilted Ninja]

Well with lefty flip (being right handed) you get the feeling of playing the hi-hat and snare cross-handed...atleast I did LOL. (Blue=right, green=left)

I never noticed that before, but you are right!

[mercuryshadow09]

I am left handed, but didn't realize you could switch drums to Lefty Mode. Now when I try a song in Lefty mode, I can't play it at all. To used to right-handed, not wrong-handed.

This is what happened to me too.

[Hokonoso]

lol for me some some songs i can only play in lefty mode (anything with at on of reds, RTTH etc..) my right hand is just useless, infact i go thru entire songs and just never use it, double note sections can easily be hit by tapping the first note early and the second note late... i pretty much only attempt to use my left hand on drum roll sections (i never get em but i try). if the song has only a few red notes but is long (GGaHT) i can use my left hand but anything that has consecutive red notes = right hand only, just not even gonna try to use left hand, im not a drummer and dont wanna learn to be one so i wont try.

[Melchiah]

I'll probably do Lefty Flip in order to train my left hand...eventually. For now, I'm getting by.

[sarysa]

I just started this experiment today. I'm not a real drummer and my left hand is really weak, so I decided to make a lefty profile after being hopelessly stuck on Reaper/Expert in the hopes my hands will be more balanced during drumrolls. (and my left hand will be more reliable) Plus my weak left arm is what's making run to the hills impossible. I'm not crossing my arms, I'm using my left arm like I'd use my right arm.

So far I've already made it to tier 6 expert. (was free most of the day) It's weird...really, really weird. The three worst songs and why:
Reptilia - Surprisingly I was able to pull off the speed, but the alternating hi-hat+bass and hi-hat+snare really threw me for a loop. I barely passed Green Grass near the end as well because the alternating is so fast, and my right leg/right arm are still tied together somewhat. :/
Orange Crush - I got into the habit of syncing my right foot/right arm again, so when trying to sync my right foot with my left arm, I'd fall off balance and would have to stop and restart with a right foot+left arm combo and pray I don't fall off again. :)
[probably]The Hand that Feeds - I cheated with this one and did most of the orange-crush type part near the end with my strong arm. :/ Probably should go back and do it legit. The one-two-three-pause bits weren't as bad as I expected, and the slow parts are actually EASIER in lefty.

It's actually kinda fun after awhile. (but painful too) I'll know soon enough whether or not it helps me in tier 9.

[WhiteHot]

I had this idea way back when I started the Expert tour. Figured I'd 'finish' the tour, and then start a left handed tour to get even better.
Since later never came, might have to do this sooner than later.
Can't imagine starting on Expert, though. I mean really, just jumping into In Bloom, no matter what, will be PWNage on your left hand.

[sarysa]

I'm sure you'll do fine. You should already have the expert coordination down anyway. I found that the footy songs aren't that bad in lefty. The only one to watch out for is Maps, because going for those in-between notes may throw your foot off beat.

[Abaddon]

I've thought about this (currently stuck on T8 Expert) but shouldn't you go all the way and use your left foot instead of your right foot too? Or do you think that'd just be too tough? I may have to try lefty flip some and see what it feels like myself...

[CCDaDon]

Try playing Foreplay over and over and keep doing the reds on the r,r,Bass+G left handed and when foreplay is over hit restart... or take it into practice... it will improve you lefty skills drastically... atleast it did for me... now i can do any snare rolls(up to 3 different notes that is) left handed...

[instantdeath999]

You could try "I think I'm Paranoid" (your right hand hit's the same note throughout) on lefty.

[neogel]

A good drill to do to improve left hand speed is to sit down with a pillow and play eight on each hand. Just start by doing eight strokes with the right hand, then left hand and alternate and try to get your left hand going as fast as your right. After a while you'll be pounding out open rolls and FC'ing train kept a rollin'.

[Dzhokhar]

This is what happened to me too.

Same here, I'm much better (not good though) playing right-handed than lefty because I didn't know drums had lefty-flip when I first got the game. I do use my left foot for the bass pedal though.

[sarysa]

Hehe, I'm in a great mood right now. Two days ago I did a lefty mode marathon. Didn't play yesterday. Today I got up to 64% in RttH!! Before I could barely pull off 43% before my left arm would go out. Now my left hand doesn't get tired, what killed me was I threw myself off with the triple-bass in that part of RttH. I could've gone straight through.
I got 4x multipliers in the 16th notes of RttH for the first time ever, and got six energy sections. (totaling 3 drum fills)

And that's after one day of lefty training.

I'm keeping this up. I could beat RttH within this week thanks to this routine. :) :) Thanks Harmonix for lefty mode!

[nnewton123]

Lefty mode helped me out quite a bit. I didn't even need to play on it very long. Just go through some of the easier songs on expert lefty mode and you *should* see some improvements right away.

[sarysa]

So I thought I'd do another update on this.

I find the more I do lefty mode, the more my left hand is actually willing to do things. I barely completed expert RttH a couple days after my previous post, but aside from that my drumrolls have improved and my left hand participates more often in songs. Plus it's REALLY helped me separate my hands/feet better.

Haven't completed the game in lefty mode (DoA and the KISS song are ridiculous) but I'm now trying to spend half my time in ranked score duels on my lefty toon. I actually win sometimes too. :D It's so much more natural feeling now, though the mindfreak songs are still so much worse in lefty. (i.e. Vasoline)

I'd recommend lefty mode to anyone who wants to get better at the drums.

[blade1135]

This is what happened to me too.

that happened too me also. except after i started to play run to the hills on hard, i tried lefty mode and eventually got better and better.

[Lone Bulldogs]

I'm not a real drummer but to train my left hand I practice songs that have 16th notes. This way the left hand is playing as much as the right. I personally think this is the best way.

[Xp3R1M3Nt4L]

training your left hand on lefty isn't a good idea, just keep playing, it'll get better.

like do songs like toxicity, where your left hand gets used alot more than other songs.

[mayhem117]

I'm currently playing on lefty flip to build my skills as well! It helps tons better!!! A big hurdle to go through is learning to lead with your left hand, im also learning to use my left foot as well. It's very awkward at first but really does help alot especially when you feel that you've hit your peak at playing righty. Always try something new!

[mbnasir6]

training your left hand on lefty isn't a good idea, just keep playing, it'll get better.

like do songs like toxicity, where your left hand gets used alot more than other songs.

This, I have not used lefty mode (Except for when I got Rb2, and thought the challenge was to play the song on Lefty :D) and I have found that I can play a basic, but fast-ish beat (LTBR) and slightly more complex (Master of Puppets) lefty

[blastissimo218]

Old thread is old.
Songs good for training left wrist: WAHNTHAC, This is Exile.

[GuitarGuruXXX]

Old thread is old.
Songs good for training left wrist: WAHNTHAC, This is Exile.

Good info is good.

The pillow method someone mentioned above is good. Paradiddles are a must too.

[w34kn3ss]

Yeah, playing in lefty mode is great to train your left hand (and left foot too). I had no problem switching, but I'm pretty coordinated (being a real drummer). You might, but that's why they invented hard difficulty.