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Revelations of a tension free drummer

Started by MOUSE, January 06, 2010, 09:15 PM

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MOUSE

 Post from MOUSE.

;)You may think I'm taking the pee but this little piece of toilet humour I thought I'd share could hopefully assist others. Otherwise this load of rap with a c in front will have me running for Hard Case Post, or Worst Joke Of The Year award.

Drumming could be considered as good time management. We tend to play in time, be at the gig on time, play in time, get our practice schedules sorted into productive time, play in time, think music all the time, play in time, help others to keep in time, play in time, etc. don't we!

So, a drummer's life is not a complete waste when there are bits missing (the joke), the bits where we are not living drums, and preoccupied by doing something else instead. Despite what the other gender says, we do have ability to multi task, otherwise we would all be singers. Hmmm, suppose that wasn't fair, as they do have to think when they breathe. With that in mind, it seems a good idea to snatch some of those non -drummer times and make them interesting and drummer related. This will add to the arsenal (pun) or should I have said bag of tricks, as we strive and progress to a better level that we do, because it is fun.
Even as we sleep we can learn. Put a recording of a song you are learning on repeat playback as you nod off. Almost guarantee by morning you will be walking about whistling the song.

Daily it is natural for us to experience bodily and mindful tensions, but when it comes to drumming, there is a golden rule that all of the gurus have been telling us for years about playing situations, and that is " to relax".
Learning to release tension when playing the drums assists execution of uninhibited technique, you will simply play better. If you are not relaxed in mind and body, tensions tend to cripple, and you will likely perform at your worst no matter how hard you try. A good concept I found for the mind was in the Kenny Werner instructional.

The case in point is where the job is not finished until the paper work is done and by combining the concepts there is a way to release some built up inner bodily tension, and at the same time add a useful time filling strategy to any budding drummer's continuous improvement programme. It is an exercise I share with you, but first before you flush with a blush, the burning question to ponder is ... what do you do when you are on the thunderbox?

Honestly, bowel habits can be a non- productive time waster. Healthily they should occur daily and give a satisfying relief of tension, but usually of no relief to other people in the vicinity depending on what flavour curry you had previously scoffed down. But hey it's fact of life, #2's happen, and if they didn't we would certainly die. We visit the private little world of the little white room every day for at least 2 minutes or longer, that adds up at a minimum to 730 minutes of waste time (pun) a year.
Do you write things on the wall like " as you read this note in vain, the outhouse phantom strikes again", then you should be a lyricist not a drummer.
Perhaps you just zombie out and stare at the wall, listen for footsteps, play the toilet paper game, fill in the Times X word, or perhaps are preoccupied with holding your nose and it's all over in a flash, should I have gone there? Whatever, here is something productive to try; firstly all you'll need is a regular drummer's stool.

After watching a drum instruction DVD on hand technique by a notable modern drummer, I decided to try his great little exercise for building up the wrist muscles for assisting power, speed, looseness, and endurance that assists conditioning of the wrists into useful tension free drummer wrists.
The exercise is simply holding the arms together in front of you with hands flat together, and clapping the hands together so the fingers tap together, using full movements only of the wrists. Each repetition of 8 is a count.
(Easy to count as you progress, just count one then 7 claps, two then 7 claps, etc.) If you find you are a loud clapper, wear gloves (joking).

This seemed like a very dumb thing to do in public, you could be mistaken for some kind of religious fanatic, or weirdo, so sit on the throne (not the drummer's throne) and start with 20 repetitions. Each time you're back there, progress the claps until reaching 100 count with ease.
As I did this I noticed some muscles obviously needing to get match fit as the count was slowing down nearing 100, so I persevered. After achieving keeping a good even time count, I slowly increased the speed of the claps. The effect of this is developing muscles similar to the fast, fluent, supple, and relaxed ones drumming situations call for, and in a very short time.
A noticeable improvement I found in my drumming skills was the wrists are looser and more relaxed allowing much freer movement of the stick bounce, I am doing things with ease like even and solid 16th's on high hat at high tempo's that have always been to this point a challenge for me. The exercise is also a quick and easy to warm the hands up if done before any practice or playing.

Time Management Tip: That little extra time taken in the boss's time with free paper always goes unnoticed, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Hopefully this will be the only clap you have from such a circumstance, and does help someone out there to use their free time productively to increase drumming skills.
Hey, even if I have made you smile at this post, success, as some tension is relieved, or  :o even if you dropped your lip...same result. Try it when you play, relax the jaw and drop the bottom lip and breathe, it can make a difference. Ever notice the good drummers smiling as they play, ahhh, a facial expression of the drummer when playing, which is yet another free advice topic idea.

:P On a final note I leave you with this link to a most important message ...please take the time to read and follow steps 1-4 ...
http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/wash_hands.html

Larry Rankine

Humorous AND useful information!  And if anyone's interested the exercise (clapping...not the "other" exercise) is from JoJo Mayer's  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S6TNLI?ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000S6TNLI]Secrets for the Modern Drummer  DVD.   ;)

MOUSE

That's right Larry, i wasn't paid to mention it  ;D IMO a darn good DVD worth having if you want to be serious about playing well. Tiger Bill also has a similar and very good DVD showing the nitty gritty of hand technique.

Also the found the claps can be done as 3's that is 12 claps each count or 4's that's also 12 claps (in the head) to keep you alert and push a little more.

Of course you can do this on top of your legs, but the arms together ensures the wrist do he work.