Simon Phillips drum lesson: open-handed playing
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- It's no secret that Simon Phillips has forged a phenomenal drumming career that shows no signs of stopping. From musical theatre and jazz, to tenures with massive names including Toto, Jeff Beck and Mike Oldfield, Simon's playing has added a touch of magic to an incredibly diverse spread of musical situations.
In the October 2014 issue of Rhythm Magazine Simon talks about how, decades into his career, he continues to find ways to improve his drumming, production and general musicianship.
We were also invited into Simon's personal LA studio to shoot some accompanying video. Here, he shows you how to get started with open-handed playing and how it can expand your movement around the drum kit.
To read the most recent interview with Simon pick up the latest issue of Rhythm (295) Feb 2020 or subscribe at www.rhythmdrumnetwork.com
When I started playing drums at 16, I noticed my left hand was significantly behind my right. So I started playing open handed, kinda in a way to 'speed up' my left as it would have to play the hats. I'm now 37, and I'm still playing that way! I love it, and can play both 'right' and 'open' - and I frequently switch between the two.
I had the same issue. I’m right handed but open handed drumming felt natural. Problem is I lead with the right so I’m not quite truly ambidextrous but close.
Simon is one of the only drummer's that is ambidextrous! !! love his groove. He was amazing when he was 18 yrs. old.
Checkout Joe Vitale, plays right handed, open handed and switches to left handed. One of the greatest drummers most people haven't heard of, but hes on hundreds of albums and has played with just about everbody.
Another open handed guy who is also up to all of this is Carter Beauford, the machine behind The Dave Matthews Band.
Mike the Master Mangini and Me
When a player opens up his game and does the kinds of things that Simon Phillips does, there is a word for that : Genius. Good show, Mr. Phillips.
And yet he says "maybe I would have been a better a drummer" at one point in this video
@@_s827 An amazing talent and even more amazing person. A breath of fresh air.
This is why his double strokes and sticking are top-notch. He has no weakness, and his kick drum is underrated. His kick foot is wild too.
Everything about this man is just awesome.
I loved Simon's work with Mike Oldfield. He's an amazing player and comes across as a really nice guy too.
"Maybe I'd be a better drummer"....Simon Phillips. What an incredibly humble statement from one of the best drummers of all time.
Imagine that humility in this world a lost human at tribute
I agree 100% Bill
It's pretty funny indeed ! SP is just the best drummer of the world. Maybe he's the only one that doesn't know that ? 😉
@@ERICJPEG if you think "SP is just the best drummer of the world." ....then you don't get out much ....and you haven't heard the thousands of other drummers of very much the same "talent" or "skill".
.
@@taxicamel You look dumb right now
first time I hear this man speak, and I am stunned ....this is a totally nice man! I am impressed, not for drumming, as I don't know a thing about that..but this is just a great person..
Simon is an absolutely brilliant drummer, and definitely one of the very best in the world! :)
I didn't start playing until I was 39 as a hobby; after several years, I saw a video on open handed playing and it made sooo much sense! I decided to start at the beginning with one of my books and now, I can play open as well as right handed ... and I can even switch without breaking the groove! I'm not a great player by any means, but I'm saying it can be done if you desire to make the change. :)
Super enjoyable to watch.
Great drumming and a great personality too.
I'm left-handed. From the time I started drum lessons at the age of 10 or 11, I played open handed because it felt comfortable and natural. As a adult I thought my childhood drum teacher had made a mistake allowing me to play this way. I can play right-handed but I'm not quite as good as when I play open handed. Lately I have been reconfiguring my kit and in doing so was very tempted to simply make the switch to playing right-handed.
I searched RUclips for "left handed drummer right handed kit" and this video of Simon Phillips appeared. I was surprised to see him promoting the idea of playing open handed and even more surprised to discover that he's right-handed! Then I found several other videos promoting the benefits of playing open-handed. This made me realize that I truly am most comfortable playing open-handed and I can configure my kit to accommodate that.
Thanks, Simon!
Great drummer and very humble....
This is the signature of really great artists...
This is fascinating to watch… Simon make it look so simple
I could listen to Simon for hours . Amazing talent and a pleasure to watch .
My respect Mr Simon Phillips, a great genius is the drums!!
Thanks, an grate inspiration.
Zounds! Simon has more talent in his one hand than I have in my entire body.....
and whether they admit it or not, the comment is true for every drummer who watches this video, me certainly included!
Since begin 90ties my favourite all-time drummer... Amazing to see and hear his original VHS lesson-videos at my soundsystem. Still crisp, full of bass and very clean!
Fantastic drummer playing on great sounding drums .
Has anyone ever seen Simon and Eric Idle in the same place at the same time?
Abolutely...not. I've actually scrolled the comments for this one :-)
YouzTube99 ya they were both in the holy grail, simon was idles stuntman... probably
And unfortunately Simon could't show his drumming skills, because the cruzifying scene only allowed singing and whistling, not drumming...
oh, my goodness, I seem to be a bit confused...was thinking of The Life Of Brian... but I'm pretty sure he was Eric's stuntmen there, too.
There we go - I see the point. Thats the solution to the mysterium.
I've only ever played open-handed. I'm a lefty, and play a lefty/righty hybrid setup. Basically, everything is setup for a righty, except I put the hi-hat on the opposite side, by the floor tom.
James Bauer So you kick with your left foot?
ElMoShApPiNeSs
yes
James Bauer But then isn't that just a left hand set-up?
ElMoShApPiNeSs Sounds like it, except then he's got the floor tom on the right of his hats.
The left to right line up of the kit is then Bass Drum, Snare, Hi-hat, Floor tom, with the toms I assume mounted on top of the bass drum. Just a possibility.
no. Left handed setups use left handed fills - right to left. I play a right handed kit, with right handed fills, just with the hihat on the right side and play open-handed
His solos are always the most interesting and soulful.
I saw Simon play a couple years ago at Blue Note NYC with Hiromi Uhara and it was mind blowingly good! Before it started I actually went up and stood behind his kit to check it out and was surprised at how compact he was able to make all those pieces. I'm not saying it was a 4 piece bop size, but still it fit into a surprisingly small area and was put together like a jigsaw puzzle. His drumming is so incredibly smooth too. Him and Uhara together are a force of nature.
+demonic sweaters Hiromi Uehara blew me away at Brecon Jazz a fair few years back, astonishing musician, would love to see her play with Simon Phillips, gotta be an awesome combo.
+QekLiHoQfuh indeed it was. Not to mention Anthony Jackson on bass too! They have several albums out with that line up, it's called Hiromi Trio Project
To this day, I look, at Pete Townshend video, Let my love open the door. And who is this young guy playing the drums. And I've been a fan, of Simon Phillips, ever since. Thanks, Mr Phillips, for all these yrs of your drumming
So effortless !!! Wow is all that I can muster right now.
Very cool to see how you do! Thank´s for the video! Mac Sweden
It's amazing that you play open-handed. I suspect not every person or drummer can play with both right-handed method and left-handed-method.
I've been playing open-handed for almost 40 yrs. I am a lefty, but that's not why I play open-handed. I play that way because my left hand was by the hi-hats and that's what I figured was easiest! then I began taking lessons after about 2 yrs of banging on the kit to Cheap Trick, Zeppelin & Sabbath records....my drum teacher said that if it works, keep it up!
Thank you. Very nice teaching style!
I had a chance to meet Simon at MD fest back in the late 90's...could not have been a nicer guy. He is a drummers drummer!
Man his chops are insane
Man i didnt want that groove at the ending to ever end.
Simon is legendary for his openhanded playing, especially on some of his recordings with Satriani.
awesome Simon! I work on this all the time
As a kid I tried guitar first, but my dad (a drummer) realised I SUCKED and put me behind a kit. I instinctively picked up sticks on a right handed kit, open stance. My hands felt natural, my feet felt natural, and almost immediately I was grooving! I'm pretty much self taught as my dad lived far away, and teaching open stance players is a pain, but the freedom it gives you is awesome! I voice things weirdly, play grooves weirdly, but it's given me a voice behind the kit that people love (I've literally got work as a result!). I'm genuinely thankful I play open, as it makes me view and play drums in a way that's unique to me (plus, linear stuff is just so much easier haha)
Thank you, lovely touch you have.
I had been playing drums a lot of years then I decided to teach my self to play piano, I could not afford a teacher, after about six months of piano I sat down at the drums one day and had always been a right hander but this day I started playing left handed and thought what the F. I stopped then started and it felt very natural, I've kept it up, it opens so much more up to you I feel, I was 50 years old when I did this, I did have to lower the high hat a lot and snare a bit and added another ride, I don't use the amount of drums you do but did play a lot of Rush at one time, don't any more, changed to country then three bad car accidents ended the drum playing with bands, my back was badly messed up and I went on disability, I do still work on the left hand on the carpeted floor and drums a bit, sitting too long eventually, 1 1/2 hrs ends the playing as I'm a fairly active drummer as you are, always loved your playing and we are about the same age.
SP … one drummer that blew me away.. saw him play in the late 80s with Mick Jagger and added to that was Joe Satriani on lead guitar .. what a musical treat.. SP became a drummer that influenced me from that day forward.
✌🏽 ☮️ 🎶 🥁 🇦🇺 🦘
Urgh, you're so good I feel sick!! I'm giving up the drums forthwith, since my inferiority is apparent.
emlix1 I get the same feeling man... makes me feel like snapping all my sticks and driving a sledgehammer through my kit. Then again it drives me to better myself at playing :D
emlix1 practise, don't be such a defeatist
2:31. . . Amazed~! . . . 2:39. . . MIND BLOWN!. . . To be able to swap effortlessly like that is fantastic. . and I mean that in the original meaning of the word.. . something from a fantasy!
lovely little show off from 2.30, nice ....
He's one of the greats
"Maybe I'd be a better drummer."
Uhh...is that possible? I mean...you're Simon Phillips.
That beat is awesome.
I've become a much better drummer by listening to this man play drums for years. I'm a leftie but play a right handed kit.
Some people don't understand how much listening skills are needed to become a skilled player. I'm not talking about listening to yourself.
One of the greatest musician ever😍
Fantastic! :) It's really *unlimited* playing.
This is awesome! I have to learn this👍🏼
Mind blown… thinking outside the box.
I forgot till I saw them in your hands I have been using your drums sticks for the last 30 yrs thank you good ones also Promark I get a little piece of rim when I hit the snare & it is the only stick that can hold up to that for more than 3 songs without breaking! My fav drum song that U did is "Siip Skirts" Pete Townsend .:)
That was mark brzezicki of big country on that particular track.
@@roughmix Thank u did not know that
Yep. Pete always had great taste in drummers. Mark did some wonderful drumming on all the best cowboys. Though Simon is a true master, Mark had a lovely touch on the few tracks he played on it ..I believe the sea refuses no river was the other track, if memory doesn't fail me.
Notice his laugh, when he says "I could have continued playing right handed and maybe I'd be a better drummer..." Inside he's like..."Yeah, like that's even possible!"^^ Simon, you're awesome!
This is one massive kit ... wow
Good drumming by Simon Phillips on White City, a solo album by Pete Townshend. Give Blood is my favorite track and the music video features Phillips quite well.
Loved his work on Priest's Sin after Sin and MSG's first album fucking class
Mind blowing....
I used to work with a 'Simon Phillips'!
I'm a pianist and have built some piezo pad configurations to program a drum machine. It seemed a given to put any sound anywhere in the zone configuration and it made for some interesting patterns which I think a traditional drummer would not come across. There really isn't any thing such as open or closed when you can experiment with any configuration. I wonder how this notable percussionist would configure something like a Trapkat.
Im getting better i play left and right thanks for posting:)
I'm not a pro drummer but I've been drumming for 40 years and I would offer that it's all in how you set up your kit and doesn't really matter left or right? Of course ambi preferable.
Seems like a sensible approach
thank you
How much Toms do you play?
Simon: Yes
Was wondering where ya went man!
Simon's drum work on 801 Live is as good as it gets.
+ What a great guy!
thanks!
Such an Englishman hahaha! And man can he drum!!!
I play the guitar and played once with a drummer who played this way. I don't play the drums really (other than sporadically amusing myself, more so than others?) and at the time I didn't even know there was a name for playing this way. This peculiar (very!) fella had his own way of doing things, of talking in general and it's only natural he played the drums backwards as well haha. But he was really good at one thing and that was drumming! He was such a strange character people stopped in their tracks just to check where he was at to not get involved hehe kind of. Good solid drumming and really into the song though. So it goes.
Always plays such a sexy-looking drumset. The way those big toms fit in there always looks just right.
Simon you da man!!!💥 👏 😰 🎉 ✊ 😎 🍸
Mangling takes it to the next level....mathematically it makes sense...geometric increase if possibilities.
So sweet 💕 you liked drum pely very nice good darmig
Tasty Drumming :)
at 3:06 that's a groove from Masques by PSP
Vero good
Bravo e solo bravo.
This must be a dumb question seeing as no one does it this way and I'm not a drummer but:
Why don't we place the high hat on the right side and make like a drive shaft/ connecting bar to still control the pedal with you left foot? It seems super hard to learn drumming with you left hand.
cool cool guy
I'm left handed playing as right handed. I didn't notice any difference since I get immerse into the reading books at the studio. Should I quit drumming?
I play since I was 15 and now I'm 36 :(
As good as he is (and I love that man to bits) - I never really understood the concept of the second snare to his left. It sounds exactly like the regular one. So what's the point?
Two best techniques. Open handed and Jim chapin - moller stick holding in the palm.
@Pete is never wrong no I meant Jim chapin moller technique
Wow! :O
Simon rocks! ...lol...better drummer???? right! like that is possible!. I was told as young student to always develop my week hand; to me my right but I never listened; however I went on to play left open handed match grip with my right on left but the setup like a right handed player.people sees me and get confuse, lol. Oh well, still never really worked too much on my right chops unless I had to because something that it requires it..example is a cover I dis of song Crazy by Aerosmith...coming out from the guitar solo there is a fill that has to be played right handed way to be done correctly..!!
good
He looks like and even talks like willy wonka.
I’m still waiting to be impressed 😎
Top
Seth Legros: They look pretty big... ProMark 2S maybe? I have some. They're like 2B's but a little longer.
I just read that they are ProMark hickory 707s!
Seth Legros He has his own ProMark signature sticks. Yes, the same size as 707's I seem to remember.
The African dun dun - grandfather of the modern drum kit - plays bass and snare with the right, and bell with the left.
Yea ok about playing open handed but is that gong drum's drumhead broken?
I'll never drum as well as you but.....I can only play open handed. I think that it's due to playing piano for 30 years before I ever sat behind a kit. I've even tried setting my kit up left handed but it doesn't work. I instinctively want to hit my snare on the 'on beat' with my right hand. Maybe all that piano practice had payed off because my left hand can handle the hi-hat no problem. My right hand plays the right-hand side of the kit and my left hand plays the left hand side. Maybe being a pianist has dictated that fact that my left hand plays the ride and crash.
I love Simon. He is so down to earth, and genuine.
I totally agree! ❤
What a nice guy.
Great humble musicians are rare today.
How do you know he's a nice guy?
@@HadEnough745 Nice enough for what we see, know and need to know.
@@HadEnough745 he doesn't make shitty comments on a great video?
Open handed playing also helps develop your left hand (if that's your weaker arm) think about all those years you played hi hat with your right hand consistently doing eights, triplets , and sixteenths making your right more dominant then left then switch up and see how much weaker your left hand is on hi hat. from my experience it's gotten my weak hand ALOT better.
I'm going to show this clip to my students who I tell that I am ambidextrous. It all started when I was having to practice cursive as a kid. Without thinking about it much, I immediately just practiced one day with one hand and the next day with the other and so on. Drove my mother crazy. But I just never chose to be one or the other and carried that into all the other activities, like sports, where I didn't choose either. This guy gives me an example I can show my students of what I essentially did as well.
Well I'm cross dominance but I prefer open hand drumming even though I started with a right handed way.
For some reason I cross my arms
I'm left handed... and I can't play the ride cymbal well if it's on the right side... but sure, I guess I can develop my right hand...
All true. ....
Simon's phenomenal. It's strikes me as funny that he still uses the old school term "Tom Tom's" instead of simply Toms. Love it!
He also said bass drum, not kick. It is a bass!
The human octopus according to Mike Oldfield
Human octopus! I love it!
That's what brought me to this video
I saw Simon live when he played with The Who in the 1989 tour! He was and is amazing! And I too play left-handed like he does!!!
He’s one the icons in drumming The young generation gotta listen and learn from these guys Your missing out on a lot
Saw him with Jeff Beck's There And Back tour. Outstanding!
He drums well ,he has cool hair, what else do ya need ?
+jsilence418 lol
don't forget he has Billy Rainbird. .. hahaha
My paddle game. And this pen. And my dog, shithead. ...... I don't need shithead.
Jerk!
Time. Like an atomic clock. And a pocket you could park a semi in...
being a "righty" and playing the Rosanna shuffle open-handed? legend!
I absolutely agree
Brilliant... as one would expect of Simon Phillips. I've been playing with traditional grip for 50 years, so it might be a bit late for this old horse... but I've always taught my students matched-grip and open-handed playing. One thing in particular I teach is: once you've learned a groove or fill and are comfortable with it, then try it backward... then try it opposite-handed. If you can do that regularly, and apply it to all your playing, you open up your coordination options exponentially.
Oh, and of course I recommend Simon Phillips videos as an excellent training tool... along with many other top-tier drummers.
Great drummer.....and a very humble and cool guy!