Bad habits, tendonitis and wail-outs.

[Thaard]

So, I've been playing for about 8 years now. The last two years I've noticed that my left arm has these pains and its become worse. It started when i wailed out on my kit, and I hit the left crash in a weird angle and i got a shooting pain up my arm(behind the thumb and index finger). This has come back in the last year and sometimes it's irritating the crap out of me. It usually happens after I've been playing for about 2 - 3hrs. I'm 23 years btw.

The thing is that it disapears just after a day of not playing, so I'm guessing it's not that bad(yet).

So I've studied my playing and come up with a few things I'm do wrong:

1. I play too fast or faster than my tendons are trained to do. My hands grip too hard and I'm not relaxed. [I'm going to start practicing singles at a very slow pace and build muscles with all grips. I'll also thinking about relaxing while playing. Also taking breaks each hour of practicing and stretching before and after practice].

2. Bad posture, since I've been sitting infront of a computer most of my life, my posture is bad. [I'm working on this too. I've cut down computering to 3 hrs a day. I also concentrate to sit straight, and adjustet the seat so that my knees are never higher than my pelvis].

3. I should cut down on the wail-outs[Hard, but I'm getting there]

4. Position my left crash in a more suitable angle. [Done]

What I'm wondering is what else can be done to prevent these bad habits, and other things I should steer clear of. Good tips and so on. It's friggin hard to take a drumming break, but I'll train my foot-technique.

[Timmymoore]

Jazz doesn't always smell funny.. Just the clubs where you have to play..

Any drum, has a practical maximum DB level. In some cases you can actually surpass the point (effort wise) where the drum will produce any more sound. If this is the case, you may be playing harder than you need to. (You refer to wail-outs). If you have access to a volume meter you can prove this for yourself. Playing above the point where you need to will only do damage... 38 years experience...... 8 in Toronto's notoriously loud Buzz Upshaw Blues band

[Timmymoore]

Jazz doesn't always smell funny.. Just the clubs where you have to play..

Any drum, has a practical maximum DB level. In some cases you can actually surpass the point (effort wise) where the drum will produce any more sound. If this is the case, you may be playing harder than you need to. (You refer to wail-outs). If you have access to a volume meter you can prove this for yourself. Playing above the point where you need to will only do damage... 38 years experience...... 8 in Toronto's notoriously loud Buzz Upshaw Blues band. My favourite blues drummer would often write RYA on each of his drum heads before big concerts ... When queried he admitted to "Relax You A%^hole"

[thelimpingtoad]

I think stretching and warming up is very important... this is something that probably isn't stressed enough outside of a school band or drum & bugle corps area...
There's several stretches I do before playing... I will describe them but I think you need to be careful because if you don't do these right you might hurt yourself more so... that's my disclaimer as to limited liability if these couple of stretches cause you to pull a muscle or rip a tendon and you can never use your arm again... don't blame me :)

ARMS:
1) Take both sticks in one hand and hold them in the middle of the sticks... slowly at first, rotate your arm back and forth then start going quicker until you're spinning them back and forth pretty fast.
2) Take the sticks and hold them both in one hand at one end (usually about 1-2 inches left on the outside of your hand... rotate your arm the whole way around so your sticks are pointing towards the floor slightly (like if its your right arm rotate them clockwise to the 4 oclock position) Then grab the other end of the sticks with your other hand and pull slightly down on it... go slow to extend them without hurting yourself... don't do this fast or pull too hard or you WILL hurt yourself...
3) Floppy hands... flail your arms up and down bending at the elbow with your wrists limp... you're trying to make your hands flap up and down but just from elbow motion alone. Flap them like this like you're playing singles on bongos really fast until they loosen up a little.
4) grinding the muscles... probably not a good warm up but i do it anyway sometimes... if your arms are cold then sit down and lay the back of your arm on your leg with your palm facing up... leave your fingers loose but maybe slightly bent... take the other hand and make a fist... then grind the muscles of the inside of your lower arm with your knuckles starting just below the elbow and grinding down to the wrist... do it slow... you're basically kneeding them like you do for a massage... do it a few times until you have nice red marks on your arms :) then do the other one. Also rubbing them aggressivly up and down helps warm them up.

I also like to stretch my shoulders and upper arms by placing my arm across my chest and piushing it in toward me at the elbow with the other arm.

LEGS:
For leg stretches, I usually put the balls of my foot against a wall and lean forward to stretch my calves and my hamstrings. I also then stand on the balls of my feet and extend upward to stretch the calves better.

On the Drums:
Then warm up on a kit with some singles, or both sticks at once playing eighth notes... very gradually speed it up until you feel loose.
Do some doubles slowly with both hands (and feet) (1e a2 &a e& 4 & ) and triples (1e& 2e& 3e& 4 &) Then speed them up and work them until you're feeling nice and loose. I also like to alternate them so one hand is playing the triples and the other is doubles and the kick is keeping eigth notes or something.

I don't know if my stretches are good or if they actually help but i've been doing them for years since i was in drumline in highschool... it seems to help loosen me up so I will keep doing them... Please let me know if you're an orthopedist and these are totally damaging my body... ;)

[Skulmoski]

I have had tendonitis in the past and now stretch prior to playing drums. Some of the stretches I do can be found in the following guide:
http://www.innovativepercussion.com/pages/files/Stretching_for_Pain-Free_Performance.pdf

It is important to remember that we drummers play the drums, rather than hit the drums. Hitting hurts; playing is fun.

Best wishes

GJS

[thelimpingtoad]

I have had tendonitis in the past and now stretch prior to playing drums. Some of the stretches I do can be found in the following guide:
http://www.innovativepercussion.com/pages/files/Stretching_for_Pain-Free_Performance.pdf


Good link... a lot of those are similar to the ones i do but i use sticks to do the extensions because it helps me have some resistence to pull back on.

ALso... its very important to remember to breath while stretching... i know that sounds stupid "how could i forget to breath?!" but it is really easy to get in the habit of holding your breath while you stretch... breathing normally is important though, because it helps get more oxygen to your blood stream which spreads to your muscles and makes stretching more beneficial...
also... if you hold your breath you could pass out and hit your head and get a concussion and have to go to the hospital where you will sit in the waiting room bleeding from your skull for 5 hrs until they finally take you back and then put needles in your head to give you an anesthetic so they can put metal staples in your head and then send you for a CAT scan and find out you have some abnormal spot on your brain then make you go for 2 MRI's the next couple of months and have a nuerologist tell you that it looks like you've had brain surgery even when you haven't and then say he doesn't have any idea what that little black spot on your right frontal lobe is but you should be fine and you are still allowed to go deep sea diving or sky diving if you ever want to.. whew... yes... that all really happened to me... but no... not from stretching... just remember to BREATH!

[Thaard]

Thanks for the feedback. Just played abit now and it feels abit better. Just relaxing and instead of wailing around with the hands, just limiting the speed to what I'm comfortable with. Warming up is something i've started doing too, but its abit tricky to find the right amount of time to warm up so that my muscles and tendons feel good.

I'll record alittle solo, paste it here.

[thelimpingtoad]

Thanks for the feedback. Just played abit now and it feels abit better. Just relaxing and instead of wailing around with the hands, just limiting the speed to what I'm comfortable with. Warming up is something i've started doing too, but its abit tricky to find the right amount of time to warm up so that my muscles and tendons feel good.

I'll record alittle solo, paste it here.

Well it really isn't so much a set time... i mean you just have to warm up and stretch until your muscles feel loose. i've found that this time is less when it is hot and my arms are already a little warm versus when its cold and they are completely tight. It is definately important though, just like with sports... you wouldn't run a marathon or play football or whatever without stretching and warming up a little right? and playing drums is very physical.
Stretching will also decrease your warm-up time for how long you're actually needing to play before you're warm.