5 Mistakes drummers make that can cause Injuries

No one should be hurting themselves in the name of practice. Yes, you should practice hard and practice daily but not at the expense of your health. A bad habit can be very bad for your own growth as a musician. So, let us talk about few mistakes that drummers make while practicing their instrument.

1. Incorrect Playing Posture

This is the most basic and the very fundamental thing that you are taught when you start your drum lessons. However, as sessions go by, it can be seen that a lot of students don’t pay attention to their posture. Sitting straight is very important as a bent back puts a lot of pressure on your spine. This can lead to back pain – something you don’t want to experience as an amateur musician. So, get your posture right and be conscious of holding the right posture for some time until it becomes second nature to you.

2. Incorrect Drumkit Setup:

As a drummer, you should know how your drum kit setup should be. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you should be able reach all the parts of your drum kit. You should not be stretching or straining to reach any part of your kit. Extending your shoulders constantly can cause muscle strain and injury to the joints. You should feel relaxed when you are practicing on your drums and this will ensure you get the most out of your time and commitment to the practice sessions.

3. Rushing or Skipping your Warm-Up Exercises:

A lot of students rush through (or even skip) doing their warm-up exercises in class and at home during practice. This is really wrong because every exercise is fundamental and important to the core skills you are building as a drummer. The techniques you are taught are very important for your growth as a musician. If you rush through the exercises or even try playing the exercises in a higher tempo without understanding the technique and proper process of executing them, you will end up training the wrong muscles or even stress and injure them. Thus, take every exercise slow and only advance further once you have a comfortable command over the techniques you are trying to learn.

4. Wrong Drum Accessories:

It is very important that you have the essential materials to play drums. Different individual will have different needs according to the style of play. If you are someone who strikes the drum softly, then you should get lighter sticks. Similarly, if you are a hard hitter, then get a thicker set of sticks. The reason is that if you are a hard hitter and you are using a thinner stick, you would have to hit it even harder to get the sound that you could achieve with a thick stick  - instead it will put extra strain on your muscle and could lead to injury.

5. Wrong Techniques:

Yes, don’t stomp your pedal. Learn the right technique to play the pedals on the drums. Unnecessary stomping will only cause injury to your knee which is really avoidable if you use the right technique. Also, to play beats faster, you have to understand that you cannot achieve that speed with the hand, you have to use your wrist because it gives you more flexibility. Using your whole hand to play fast will stiffen and could injure your arm muscles. Using the wrist will ensure that you get the speed without putting too much pressure on your arm.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.

Drum Rudiments - Single Stroke Roll

Learn How To Play The Single Stroke Roll Drum Rudiment!

The single stroke roll is the drum rudiment everyone should learn how to play first. If you’ve been playing drums for some time now but have not began learning the 40 drum rudiments, chances are you’ve already applied the single stroke roll to your drum beats and drum fills without knowing about it.

This drum rudiment consists of alternating strokes played between the hands – R (right) L (left) R L R L…or L R L R L R…in case you’re left hand dominant. No matter the hand you start playing it with, it’s important you learn how to execute the single stroke roll leading with both hands.

Don’t rush the process of learning how to play any of the 40 drum rudiments, just so you can get to the drum beats and drum fills. Taking your time with each step of the learning process will actually make you a better drummer. Focus on quality and not on quantity.

As you practice any of the 40 drum rudiments, sit in front of a mirror so you can check your posture, stick heights and even the way each hand plays a stroke of a given rudiment. This is like having a drum teacher watching you play, evaluating your performance and making corrections. When in front of a mirror you’re your own drum teacher. Be demanding with yourself as a teacher would. Try making things sound and look as perfect as possible. Remember to practice with a metronome, have a lot of patience and just keep playing and having fun. With time you’ll become the drummer you aspire to be. You just have to keep at it.

Once you can play the single stroke roll comfortably on a single surface (practice pad, snare drum) you can move on to learn how to apply it to the drum set. On exercise #1, start by playing a 16th note single stroke roll on the hi-hat. Once you have that down, take the leading hand off of the hi-hat to hit the snare drum on counts 2 and 4. Add the bass drum on counts 1 and 3 and you’re set.

On exercise #2, the bass drum pattern is the same as the one on the previous drum beat. However, the 16th note single stroke roll is a lot more broken up between the hi-hat and the snare drum. Keep the weaker hand close to the snare drumhead so you can play very soft ghost notes on the “e’s” and “ahs” of each count. The leading hand is on the hi-hat playing 8th notes on the “ands” and on counts 1 and 3. On counts 2 and 4 move that hand to hit accented strokes on the snare drum.

Exercise #3 is the first drum fill on this 40 drum rudiments free video lesson. The idea for this drum fill is to keep a single stroke roll going around the drums. Start on the snare and move down your toms, playing four strokes per drum.

The last drum fill on this 40 drum rudiments free drum lesson is a variation on the previous one. Instead of starting the drum fill on count 1 of the second bar start it on count 3 – this is known as a half-bar drum fill. Hit the snare drum first and move down your toms, playing two strokes per drum.

Once you’re able to play the single stroke roll and the exercises herein accurately, you can move on to further expand your knowledge of the 40 drum rudiments. If you want to keep studying single stroke based drum rudiments, we encourage you to move on to learn how to play the single stroke four. In case you want to learn a new type of basic rudimentary stroke, then the double stroke roll is the best next thing for you to learn.

BlueTimbre is a Music Company with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in Whitefield, Bangalore, India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

Source: 

http://www.40drumrudiments.com/single-stroke-roll/