I've never warmed up before a Gig.

M

maxwhineberg

Junior Member
I hardly ever warm up before a gig. I've done it maybe a handful of times ever. I never find a quiet spot and run rudiments or single strokes or stretch or anything. I should. But I don't - And I play pretty intense rock n roll most of the time so I would totally benefit from it I'm sure. I do get tight every now and then at the beginning of a set but not often. Maybe it's because I don't ever use a lot of rudiments but still, I'm sure I could benefit from it.

I'm finally going to start doing it (even though I'm an older dude now)


How often do you all warm up?
 
I don't understand the need to "warm up" before you play drums.
Unless it's very cold and your hands and feet are very cold.

I can understand warming up for certain instruments, like playing the trumpet.
But not the drums.

.
 
My band practises once a week, at my house.

I try and get on the kit for at least an hour before the guys arrive. I can feel that I get looser and more relaxed in my playing, and consequently smoother.

My experience on the very limited number of gigs that we've played is that it's all too frenetic to find time to set aside and rehearse, but generally there's a sound check not too far from when we play, and we'll go over a few songs then, which is kind fo waring up I s'pose.
 
I think warming up is pretty important.. a pitcher warms up in the bullpen before coming into the game and that's how I view drumming...
 
Over the years, I've watched a ton of videos from pro drummers showing their backstage warmup routines, etc and I see the value in it but I've never really partaken in a routine myself.

At home I might play to one of the simple loops on my Vdrums sequencer for 2-3 minutes to get some "flow" going but at my gigs (2-3x a week) I'll do some forearm and hamstring stretches for a minute but never much more than that. I'm still going strong. hopefully I don't fall apart anytime soon haha!
 
I will tell you that my hands will usually start to cramp a song or two into the show. It goes away after the third song, give or take. I have found I can eliminate this by warming up before we play, but I never seem to find the time. We load up on to the stage, do the sound check and off we go, barely a minute to grab a beer or two to down during the set. I have played a few shows where we actually had a back stage and a place to warm up and I took advantage of it, but usually its not a luxury I can afford.
 
40 years of drumming - 0 warm up.

F
 
I find I play better when I've had a few minutes to myself to warm up before the soundcheck. I can pull up some grooving songs to play along to on my phone, get into the feeling of playing, and I don't have to pull it out of nowhere. But to each his own.

I hope if you're not warming up on the kit, you are taking an opportunity to hydrate, stretch, or otherwise physically prepare, though.
 
Never gig these days, although I hope that will change with our new band. In the eighties when I did, I was young and didn't think about warming up, now I like to warm up before rehearsals, I need 15-20 minutes to get my hands in shape. If I don't I tense and bring back old bad habits.
 
I don't either, besides a quick sound check.. I just make sure I don't go too hard to start off.. Just like warming up a car really. It would be different if I was playing in Dillinger Escape Plan.
 
Never warm up, never have. As for the baseball pitcher? Nothing like drumming, pitching is an extreme athletic action taking joints and muscles to the limit of movement and strength. Drumming is much smaller body movements, or should be.
 
It depends upon the style of music.

Basic rock/pop stuff no biggie

200 bpm and over heavy music with double bass yes.

It's not a badge of honor if you don't warm up. The only thing that matters is how you sound when you play.
 
If the music is in any way chops heavy it's essential to get the bloo flowing and stretch out.

When I ractice it's a longer process. I just get up and do some stretching every 30-45 mins or so.........

Some people have a different type of muscle fiber and it's certainly also climate dependent.
 
It depends on the type of audience, if there's a lot of chicks, I tend to warm up pretty quickly :)
 
For me, the warm up is more about mental sharpness than anything else. Sometimes the timing or dynamics can feel a bit shaky at the beginning of a set. I think we've all heard bands that start out weak at the beginning of a gig but hit their stride about half way through. I want to hit that “mid gig” groove before the show starts.

Instead of athletic sports, I'd compare it to pool or snooker. If you don't take a few practice shots, you're more likely to flub the first shot of the game. But most of the music I play is not physically demanding, I can understand why other drummers need to get their pulse rate up in addition to the mental warmup.
 
I never have either, down to the level I'm at gigging wise

Have never had to play a 2 hour high intensity set, normally just a 40min slot where I'm not chopping all over the shop anyway.
 
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