Ringo's left-handed drum fills.

I know we got lots of drumming threads, and Ringo's name naturally pops up quite frecuently in those threads, but I still haven't found (what I am looking for) a sound explanation of his unique drumming style.

What is the typical (idiosyncratic) thing about his drum fills?

I can identify Ringo's playing, but I have come to the conclusion that it's more his sound than his actual playing what I perceive. Can someone explain to me what is so typical about his playing? I see often being mentioned that the reason for Ringo playing the way he plays has to do with being left-handed, but I can't translate that into his performance on let's say "Rain".

 

Ringo is left handed? He doesn't play left handed like Phil Collins does.

 

From an internet source:
In my 1997 Modern Drummer interview with Starr, he revealed that his favorite Beatles track is "Rain." "It's the first time I think I was playing that `snatch' hi-hat [`open' punctuations]," he explained. "And what helped me to do that was that I was born left-handed. I write right-handed, but if I throw or play cricket or do anything physical, I'm left-handed. So I'm sort of this left-handed guy with a right-handed kit. I cannot start on the snare, go to the top tom, and then go to the floor tom. I have to start on the floor tom and move up, so those `snatches' on the hi-hat were just to give me room to get somewhere so I could get my hands working and get my arms to move around the drums."

 

I read a quasi-technical explanation of Ringo's "backwards" technique somewhere, but I can't recall offhand where, and by who. It had to do with which hand comes off the drum first when doing a roll and proceeding over to the next tom-tom or whatever. That's poorly put but that was the idea. It might have been Jim Keltner doing the talking. I'll try and turn it up.

 

Thanks. Very weird that he writes right handed and drums right handed, but does everything else left handed!

 

I think he just writes with his right hand, but uses normally his left hand. As I understand it, he means that his typical sound has to do with that ("Left-handed guy with a right-handed kit").

 

I don't know what makes his sound unique. I would guess that its a combination of the kits he uses, how he tunes the drums, and his own feel. A lot of his fills are triplet-fills. For those who don't know, the triplet is basically hitting the drum 3 times in a 4 bar measure. Typically, one would hit the drum 4 times in a 4 bar measure. The other thing I notice that he does is that some of his fills are played by hitting the drum twice with one hand before the the other hand. Typically, one would hit the drum with right-left-right-left. Sometimes Ringo plays right-right-left-left, or right-right-left in his triplets. That gives a very different feel. He also plays 16th notes on the hi-hat with one hand. I haven't seen him do it with two hand. The drummer in U2played 2-handed 16th notes on the hi-hat on the earlier stuff. Those were some fast tempos. Ringo doesn't play 16 notes in very fast tempos, so he can play them with one hand.

Perhaps a better drummer than myself can add more detail or correct me. I listen to his stuff and try to play his parts. He's a real "feel" drummer, and that's harder to replicate.

 

Not so unusual... I write lefty, play guitar lefty, drum lefty on a righty kit (left hand hi hat, right hand snare)... but I throw and bat righty, brush my teeth righty, bowl righty... everyone's got a compfort zone for individual actions...

...and it also comes down to education... I know a lot of proto-lefties who were converted into at least righty penmanship in school (they tried to convert me too)... a lot of proto-lefty guitarists forced into right-handed playing (either by righty guitar teachers, or when faced with the comparative disparity in availability of lefty guitars vs righty guitars). They still do a lot of other things lefty, simply because that's what feels natural.

 

If you're a right-handed drummer, your hi-hat will be on your left, and you will cross your right arm over your left to play on it. Also, your floor tom will be on your right. Ringo played like a right-handed drummer, but often began fills on his left hand rather than his right. This means you'll end up in a different place, generally.

Really, a drummer brings a lot of his sound with him. Consider that Paul, also a left-handed guy, sounded totally different, even on Ringo's kit.

As to what is considered "idiosyncratic", that is purely up to you. Lots of things enter into someone's sound....tuning, miking, etc. Consider that Ringo used pretty much the same setup(Ludwig, save for the early days) and the same snare, just tuned differently or muffled. There is much you can do to the sound of a drum.


Dan

 

I'm not as old as Ringo, but growing up in the 60's as a child we were all encouraged to be right handed. Being left handed was 'frowned' upon by many people.

I also write right handed but throw left handed.

 

the mighty John Coghlan from Status Quo was another left-handed drummer, but who plays right-handed.

im guessing as well that its not just the toms and snare positions that affect their playing, but their left foot will be the stronger foot, and yet they'll be playing the bass drum with their stronger right foot.

 

Interesting -- I never knew Ringo was a lefty. Not only is he my fave "Pop" drummer, but I am a lefty drummer as well, and have the same open handed approach with the kit set up as a righty would play it. I'll listen to Ringo in a new light. For me, the strength of his drumming is in his left hand and right foot, so that makes perfect sense. For playing in this setup/style makes me more of a groove/song player, than a fill counterpoint player. Cool thread!

 

Yes, that's why in Italian left is sinistra, or sinister! It was considered evil!

 

I didn't know he was left handed either but I always thought he was one of the first [if not THE first] rock drummers to really nail the 2 and 4 backbeat. Having a strong left hand would certainly make sense there. Also in the earlier post concerning playing 16th notes with one hand....I think you meant 8th notes. and he was very good at that---he had that cool sweeping motion on the high hat .

 

Love that. When I play the hat I look like I'm hammering a nail!

 

I thought that his small size/weight and short-ish arms was
as much a factor as the left-handedness; whatever it boils down to
listening to him play drums (pre-1980's) is a real treat.

As for left handedness, I write, draw and play guitar left handed
and do everything else including throw a ball and computer-mouse
right handed. Everyone is a little different. My dad and daughter
are both left-handed but not in the same way as me.

 

His tuning was mentioned by George Martin on more than one occasion as being exceptional; I always marvelled at his hi hat work, I am a lazy drummer but doing all those strokes on the semi-opened hi hat to get that 'wash' is a lot of damned work!

 

I just stumbled upon this YouTube Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogoA_GmQNM&feature=related

Stephen

 

Left-handed compliment is another phrase demonstrating a right-centered world bias. My mother went to public school and her hand was tied behind her back while she learned to write. She ended up, like Ringo, writing with her right hand and doing many other things left-handed.

All of us left-handers are ambidextrous. We're constantly adapting to the understandably right-handed world.

I don't drum, but a left-handed drummer I used to work with told me Ringo's style was unique, partly because of the handedness issue. That's all I understood, but I certainly hear it.

 

Ringo is one of the greats for sure!

 

From what I gather from what I've read, his left-handedness affects his playing because although he plays drums set up for a righty, he'll start fills with the left hand rather than the right (typical for a righty). This affects the whole fill and gives it its unusual feeling.

 

So in fact The Beatles had a left handed rhythm section...

 

He doesn't because his kit was set up for a right-handed drummer. I suppose that was done because it wasn't "normal" to have a left handed kit back in the 60's.

 

You got to play across the top cymbal in a relaxed side to side motion the way that he did. That way the cymbals just touch against each other and let their own decay give you the 'wash.' It's not necessary to play strenuous, fast strokes.

I remember George Martin, in some old interview, referring to Ringo's hi-hats as 'swish' cymbals. Not entirely sure what he meant, but it's an apt description of the style. Swish-a-swish-a-swish-a.

 

Ringo did an interview on HBO last year with The Eurytmics' Dave Stewart, and during that interview, he discussed being left handed and how that affected his drum sound.