Let’s talk about ambidexterity in drummers. Ambidexterity is just a wordy way of saying using both hands in a dominant way. In drumming that means that you can lead or accent with either hand. Most of us have a dominant or preferred hand to use primarily. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing the tried and true cross armed technique. We generally as drummers, assign our dominant hand to the hi hats, and the non-dominant hand to perform the basics like the backbeat on the snare drum. I do this myself (most of the time). If you spend your entire life playing this way, I would not have a bad word to say about it. There is more beyond this, however.
Through the years, oddball drummers have popped out of the woodwork and challenged the traditional drum set norms. Left handed drummers playing on right handed set ups or drummers playing on odd or mirrored setups. Drummers like Gary Husband (Level 42), Simon Phillips (Session Great/Toto), and Carter Beauford (Dave Matthews Band) are a few notable examples. For me personally, Carter Beauford really opened my eyes to the benefits of “open handed” playing.
As a right handed player on a right handed kit, the benefits immediately opened up for me. If you can train yourself to play even semi-advanced patterns with your left hand on hi hats, and even being able to somewhat move between hats and snare, it opens up your dominant hand to take care of anything on your right side, with no interference from yours left. No crossed arms to get in the way. With some more development and experimentation (and of course tons of practice time to unlock those mechanics) you can begin to share lead duties between both hands, trading off hands in the middle of fills, beats, or rudiments, to create an economy of motion and placement. Tied together with a well designed and placed setup and good posture and stick technique, you can really open up sonic options and maximize your mobility around the kit. Check out the video below to see how ambidextrous playing can really benefit your playing.