Therapeutic drums

I love more things about drumming (and music in general) than I can probably address in a ten-page essay, but one of my favorite dimensions of playing is that I'm able to exist entirely in the moment. When I'm behind a kit, the past recedes into the cloudy distance, and the future is a tale that will never come true. Clocks and calendars are robbed of significance. My mind is immersed in the immediate. I'm in a trance-state from which I hope never to emerge. It's one of few activities that doesn't condemn me to wishing I was doing something else instead.

Drumming for eternity -- that wouldn't at all be a bad afterlife assignment.
 
I used to play with a didgeridoo player, and he would play to each of our heart/solar plexus areas before we would start or to a microphone, solo, before performing. I was not "in tuned" enough to really tell what it did, but it was good. A drum kit is of similar frequencies. I bet we do a similar therapeutic good when we play right
 
this is one of the things that kept me coming back to the drums as a young kid...playing was just Zen to me. Still is.

Luckily, I get to play, hear, teach and analyze drums all day at my job, so there is never really a "bad day" at work...other than the non musical crap I have to go through as a teacher...but all of the drum stuff makes that melt away at the end of the day
 
😡 I wish it was so, Tuesday I was awarded two fractured knuckles on my right hand from softball - slid into third and weighted momentum pushing hand against bag.
Hand is swollen little less than a blown up med glove lol.

Sitting 2 days and way more to come at least 2-3 weeks, not able to do much of anything with the hand, seriously makes me reconsider my ‘recreational’ sporting lifestyle.
I’m too old to play the way I do and for what!?

Today tried picking up the sticks but no go.

I wish everyone here a healthy heart, mind and body.
This venting helped a little appreciate it!
 
😡 I wish it was so, Tuesday I was awarded two fractured knuckles on my right hand from softball - slid into third and weighted momentum pushing hand against bag.
Hand is swollen little less than a blown up med glove lol.

Sitting 2 days and way more to come at least 2-3 weeks, not able to do much of anything with the hand, seriously makes me reconsider my ‘recreational’ sporting lifestyle.
I’m too old to play the way I do and for what!?

Today tried picking up the sticks but no go.

I wish everyone here a healthy heart, mind and body.
This venting helped a little appreciate it!
Time to get your left hand in shape.

About 6 months or so before I started drumming, I broke a knuckle playing basketball during lunch at school. It took about a month before I could fully use it.
 
😡 I wish it was so, Tuesday I was awarded two fractured knuckles on my right hand from softball - slid into third and weighted momentum pushing hand against bag.
Hand is swollen little less than a blown up med glove lol.

Sitting 2 days and way more to come at least 2-3 weeks, not able to do much of anything with the hand, seriously makes me reconsider my ‘recreational’ sporting lifestyle.
I’m too old to play the way I do and for what!?

Today tried picking up the sticks but no go.

I wish everyone here a healthy heart, mind and body.
This venting helped a little appreciate it!
Tough outcome, man. I broke an arm sliding into home plate in fifth grade, but that was a very long time ago. I must admit that I'm pretty cautious now about preserving my body. An injury that might keep me from drumming just isn't worth the risk.
 
Yeah, the most productive way to endure an injury it to treat it as an opportunity to nurture something else. That's a rationalization, of course, but it's much better than brooding over ill-fortune.
I would but any exertion kills me this early on, even indirectly, and blood pumping brings about throbbing in my ailing.

So for now I’ve resigned myself for a little bit to lick my wounds.

Oh I’ll definitely be attempting to steal a session or two in this stretch.

MIP and yourself thanks for the uplifting advice, I’ll most likely be able to perform the left hand exercises before any attempt on right.

Sorry to bring thread down momentarily, (as I’m prone to do), please carry on!
 
. . . use the opportunity to focus on listening more. You may find that you're hearing things from a different perspective.
Sage suggestion. Listening is one of the most overlooked forms of practice, and we don't need drum gear to do it. There's a lot more to drumming than physical execution. Expanding our understanding of music as a whole is just as important, perhaps even more important. I think twenty minutes of undistracted listening can be worth an hour of playing.
 
I just had a very boring, tired, no motivation day, vacation day but boring.. Then I went behind the kit and picked some short songs to play for about 10 minutes, it turned my day upside down, from bad to good! Only 10 high quality minutes. 😮

Thanks for reading.

Yup... It's my meditation... not matter how bad the day... spend some time in a groove and let it all float away... (for me a bit of playing some al green is nice to relax to).. Almost better than any drug:)
 
Practicing my instrument usually means I'm also practicing the kind of mindfulness people here are mentioning. There's also bilateral stimulation happening, the main feature of EMDR therapy.
 
Time to get your left hand in shape.

About 6 months or so before I started drumming, I broke a knuckle playing basketball during lunch at school. It took about a month before I could fully use it.
Young stupid and in a hurry I was cleaning out the 'out' shoot of my parents lawnmower while it was RUNNING and the index finger on my right, yep right handed, went in a bit too far.... tuff fractured the end of the finger and put a very nice slice in it but kept it. But had to play a gig the next day. Took my meds first thing the next morning and ended up sick as a dog, threw up all the way to the gig!
 
Young stupid and in a hurry I was cleaning out the 'out' shoot of my parents lawnmower while it was RUNNING and the index finger on my right, yep right handed, went in a bit too far.... tuff fractured the end of the finger and put a very nice slice in it but kept it. But had to play a gig the next day. Took my meds first thing the next morning and ended up sick as a dog, threw up all the way to the gig!

so...

- i have ridden my BMX bike off of a 30' cliff
- played a full season of hockey goalie with out a cup
- spliced live wires together in the house
- done polar bear swims in -30º F weather
- seen Milli Vanilli in concert

but have NEVER done anything as scary as this!!!
 
so...

- i have ridden my BMX bike off of a 30' cliff
- played a full season of hockey goalie with out a cup
- spliced live wires together in the house
- done polar bear swims in -30º F weather
- seen Milli Vanilli in concert

but have NEVER done anything as scary as this!!!
I’ve NEVER done anything as scary as seeing Milli Vanilli in concert. 😀
 
Were you trying to kill yourself or burn down the house lol?

I had forgotten to turn off the circuit at the box...I had hit all the other ones, but it was an old house, so all of the circuits were not laid out sensibly...from that time on, any time I did electric stuff in the house, I turned off ALL circuits and used a head lamp or flashlight...

I have been zapped a couple of times dealing with bass amps as well
 
I’ve NEVER done anything as scary as seeing Milli Vanilli in concert. 😀

I was forced to go to that show by my GF at the time...what a idiot I was. It was on the famous "lip syncing" tour
 
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