THC
Senior Member
Finding the most comfortable and natural position for each piece on the kit has been a continuous journey for me since I picked backed up the sticks about a year an half ago. Little tweaks here and there to see if something might be a little more comfortable is one of the things I sometimes find myself doing when I can't play but still want "drum time".
At first it was huge changes. I'd totally rearrange everything just to see what it was like. Now that I'm over that silliness, and have settled on the basic placement of everything, I'm now down to doing the occasional micro-adjustments to work out the little things that just don't feel right.
One thing I keep coming back to is hi-hat placement.
When I first set up my kit, I start with the throne. I sit comfortably balanced on the throne with my feet on the floor in the most natural seated position. Right there is where I put my kick pedal and my hi-hat and then I build everything else builds out from there. I'm tall with long legs, so I do have a make a few concessions to accommodate limb length. The main one being taking the toms off the kick and putting them on a stand.
With everything in it's most comfortable position, my hand position while playing hi-hat and snare ends up like this.
Here's another angle on the snare upstroke
With my right hand directly above the center of the left stick I occasionally whack my knuckles….and it just seems very tight in the whole area.
If I move the hi-hat further to the left, which put’s my hands over top of each other, it feels a bit better, and allows each stick to move in its full arc without interfering with each other, but that puts the hi-hat pretty far over over off my left shoulder.and opens up my legs into an uncomfortable sitting and playing position.
The other way isn't any better and I'd have to redo the toms.
If I move the hi-hat closer to me, it moves my right hand back out the way so it's stick over stick, but that put's my left leg in an uncomfortable bent position.
If I raise up the hi-hat to get some more clearance in there, it seems to throw my whole right arm into an uncomfortable position to play on top of the hats, and going from hi-hat to snare and back quickly is a mess.
The way I have it now seems to be the best compromise of legs, hands and sticks, but I still think I'm missing something.
thoughts?
At first it was huge changes. I'd totally rearrange everything just to see what it was like. Now that I'm over that silliness, and have settled on the basic placement of everything, I'm now down to doing the occasional micro-adjustments to work out the little things that just don't feel right.
One thing I keep coming back to is hi-hat placement.
When I first set up my kit, I start with the throne. I sit comfortably balanced on the throne with my feet on the floor in the most natural seated position. Right there is where I put my kick pedal and my hi-hat and then I build everything else builds out from there. I'm tall with long legs, so I do have a make a few concessions to accommodate limb length. The main one being taking the toms off the kick and putting them on a stand.
With everything in it's most comfortable position, my hand position while playing hi-hat and snare ends up like this.
Here's another angle on the snare upstroke
With my right hand directly above the center of the left stick I occasionally whack my knuckles….and it just seems very tight in the whole area.
If I move the hi-hat further to the left, which put’s my hands over top of each other, it feels a bit better, and allows each stick to move in its full arc without interfering with each other, but that puts the hi-hat pretty far over over off my left shoulder.and opens up my legs into an uncomfortable sitting and playing position.
The other way isn't any better and I'd have to redo the toms.
If I move the hi-hat closer to me, it moves my right hand back out the way so it's stick over stick, but that put's my left leg in an uncomfortable bent position.
If I raise up the hi-hat to get some more clearance in there, it seems to throw my whole right arm into an uncomfortable position to play on top of the hats, and going from hi-hat to snare and back quickly is a mess.
The way I have it now seems to be the best compromise of legs, hands and sticks, but I still think I'm missing something.
thoughts?