Not long ago I read that part of Ringo’s style could be attributed to the fact that he was a lefty playing a right handed drum kit. I always thought that drum kits were set up in all sorts of different configurations. Didn’t realize there were sort of standard placements. So, did Ringo set up his kit as a right hander would because that’s what he liked? He could have set it up lefty, correct? It’s how they were set up that made his kit right handed- there’s no such thing as left handed drum kits, are there?
His Beatles kit is here and looks like you might be able to switch the mount of the mid-tom to the other side, and then all the other components can be moved easily.
But he is probably referring to his very first kits, which would have had inflexible racks and mounts forcing one configuration. Also, a drummer often sits in with bands and venues and doesn’t bring his own kit. A righty starts a fill with right-left and moves across the kit to the right (clockwise) producing predictable patterns. A left may start left-right and create different patterns.
Penn Jillette talked about this on his podcast once and really made me laugh. He said out of all the drummers in the world throughout history, you’d think Ringo Starr would have the means to get himself the correct kind of drum set!
Well, if he learned on an “incorrect set” and still managed, why change? Dick Dale*, Albert King, and many other top left-handed guitarists played right handed guitars upside down without reversing the strings because that’s just how they learned to play.
*Dick Dale eventually played left-handed guitars, but they were strung “upside-down”.
And of course Jimi Hendrix.
I think Jimi restrung his right-handed guitars.
I just read on Redditt, so it has to be true, that the majority of lefties flipping right handed guitars reverse the order of the strings so the fat E is on top. Jeeze, regular chords can be a bitch, I can’t imagine playing them backwards.
If they flip the strings with the low E on top, the lefties are playing the same chords as a righty, well, with their left hand. Am I missing something here? It’s if a leftie takes a right-handed guitar and flips it over and doesn’t restring to the high E is on the top that you get into weirdness.
I just tried an A, C, D, E and G flipped upside down and they didn’t seem difficult. I’m sure there are some that would be harder. But, the dreaded F seemed like it would be easier upside down (along with any barred E chord shape). Maybe I’m not actually doing them correctly though…
That was back when parents thought that if you were left-handed, you were retarded, So he was forced to play a right-hand kit by his grandmother. He talks about it his style a little here.