Is it better to cross your arms when drumming?

Question:I play the drums, except the way i play is having my left arm play the hi-hat and my right play the snare when doing a rock beat. I notice that many drummers cross their arms when they play. Is the way i play ok? or should i learn to play like every other drummer and cross the arms...

if that makes sense... :)

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I play the drums, except the way i play is having my left arm play the hi-hat and my right play the snare when doing a rock beat. I notice that many drummers cross their arms when they play. Is the way i play ok? or should i learn to play like every other drummer and cross the arms...

if that makes sense... :)

It is not necessarily better....Not crossing over allows you to play more diverse beats/patterns....I wish I had learned that way....Check this out and you'll see what I mean about the possibilities it offers..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKm9YVlOX...

This should interest you as well.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_hand_d...

It boils down to what you're comfortable with. If you can get used to crossing your arms, then it's all good.

i was told once that having your arms crossed can help you play at a faster rate and that you can 'move around' faster...thats what my music teacher told me anyway.

Dear Indigopr.........

What ever way you play drums comfortably and well is the way you should play them.

Maybe some drummers cross their arms because their brains control their bodies in a criss-cross way.

Love,
Mother Earth

The technique is called cross-sticking.

Cross-sticking is used usually on the snare only or the cymbals only but it can also happen too when you play one stick on a cymbal and another on a drum.

If you are right-handed, playing the rock "backbeat" with snare would be best for you. Occasionally it is alright to cross the arms but it depends on how far your hi-hat and the snare drum are (6 inches away, 1 foot away, 2 feet away, etc.). If the drums and hi-hat are far away, crossing will be impractical and you have to separate arms but you will get
almost the same good drumming results.

That's perfectly fine. It's no big deal. AS LONG as you are keeping your grooves and beat solid...it doesn't matter what method you use really. In drumming, the bottom line of it all...is that you keep your timing tight and your grooves solid....as long as you do that part right.....then you can go off and do all your fancy fills, drum solos on top of that.
Your "grooves" are your foundation in each song. Good luck

Good luck

It's better to cross over (right hand hi-hat, left hand snare), I'll explain why. (assuming you're right handed I'll explain for right handed playing), If you use your left arm for snare and right arm for hi-hats, your right arm is doing most of the work (dominant), this is the proper way for right handed. If you train yourself the other way, you're just teaching yourself to play lefty with your hands and righty with your feet, it'll lead to problems. When you do a roll around the drums (4 beats per drum starting on snare ending on floor tom) you'll need to lead (start) with your right hand or you'll wind up crossing over and lose beat. Try playing 4 beats per drum all the way around leading with your left, then try it leading with your right, you'll see my point clearly. When you're a right handed drummer, you need to be right hand dominant. The hi-hat hand is going to be the one keeping the tempo solid.

Besides, you're only crossing over for hi-hat, when you switch to ride cymbal you're not.

There are only 2 drummers I know of that play as you're suggesting, Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones and Ringo Starr of the Beatles. Listen how crappy threir rolls sound.

If you're just learning, don't start of by teaching yourself wrong. Most drummers play crossed over for a reason, learn from experience.

Add for TreyHugh: We're not talking about traditional grip as opposed to match grip. I recommend match grip. we're talking about playing the hi-hat with right arm crossed over left (left being snare) as opposed to playing the snare with your right and hi-hat with left.

Note: traditional grip is holding your left stick, palm up, between your middle and ring finger with the butt of the stick resting between your thumb and fore-finger. This was used for marching snare to compensate for the tilt of the drum to the right. Matching grip is just what it implies, both sticks are held the same.

READ THIS 1!!!!!!!!! having an open sticking like ur have is meny times considered better then crossing match grip. my drum teacher actully convinced me to play open. its much faster and efectice it makes no sense to cross. thank it this way. ever thing on the right of the drum set is for right hand and left of the drum set left hand best way to play.
i read a greet artical in the modern drummer december 2006 that talks about its afectiveness. open hand will make u an amazing drummer. keep it up.