Tiger Bill’s Speed Lesson #55: Developing the Weak Hand - Part 6

Welcome to part six in our series of exercises designed to develop your weak hand. If you've been with us from the beginning of the series and practicing regularly, you should be seeing quite a bit of progress in your hands about now. If you missed any of the previous lessons, check out the lesson section at DrumMagazine.com and work on those before continuing.

Video Lesson

Study the written exercises below before accessing the video clip. The line marked S is to be played with your strong hand and the line marked W is played with your weak hand. For best results, maintain a log of your progress and practice regularly.

This month we add another 3 exercises to our practice routine, at 3 minutes per exercise, for a total of 54 minutes! To get the maximum benefit, you should now practice for a full 54 minutes each session. Be sure to select a metronome tempo that allows you to play for the entire length of time without developing tension anywhere in your fingers, wrists, or arms.

When watching my "up to speed" video demonstration, you'll probably notice that my hands move around a bit differently than most other drummers. This is because I am using Rotational Perpetual Motion (RPM), which is a technique I developed to allow me to play at high speeds for extended periods of time without becoming tense. For more information, visit TensionFreeDrumming.com .

Additional Weak Hand Workouts

So far the exercises we've been working on in this series have been designed to build your weak hand by building endurance. In addition to endurance training, you should now add speed training to your work out. Here's how it works. Select one bar at a time from each of the exercises in this lesson and play that bar just once but at the fastest tempo you can play without becoming tense. The difficult part is to play the bar without becoming tense! Staying tension free can be done if you choose a tempo that approaches the limit of your current ability but doesn't go beyond it. This exercise will help develop your weak hand through short bursts of speed and is a great addition to your endurance training. Try it!

Whether working for endurance or speed you should also practice these exercises reversing hands, so that the S (strong hand) part is played with your weak hand and the W (weak hand) part is played with your strong hand.

Questions on this month's lesson can be sent to me at .

Until next time: Stay loose and have fun!

Tiger Bill Meligari