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.
