Yay…. the walls are painted, the carpet is cleaned and the sound panels are starting to go up. The main kit core is being reconfigured and tested now. After years of sitting at my drums at what I now know is an an incredibly bad posture. I am adjusting the core “trap” pieces to better fit a more upright and appropriate posture for drumming.
Steve Smith Drumming Posture Photo From Drummerworld.com © Andrew Lepley
Here are some good shots of Steve Smith sitting at what I think is an optimal position. I have done some minor reading on the subject and hope that this will dramatically improve my abilities on the kit and prevent further injury to my neck. Another great drummer health source is here and Daniel Buch has a great quote there:
“Drumming is an art, not a competition.”
I had to have a disk replaced in my cervical spine a few years ago much to my chagrin and I can say it would have been much better to have avoided having to do that surgery. Since I am not really an athlete I attribute this injury to the many years of carrying large drums in marching band when they were heavy as hell and sitting at my kit wrong for many years. This hunched over position may have got the job done for me but is not at all the best way to sit and if you are leaning forward like this I would recommend working to retrain your core muscles to accept a more upright position. I also used to play with my ride cymbal directly to my right to allow for more toms room up front but this was also bad for my spine.
How Not To Play Drums
Once I am comfortable with the new structure of the trap set component, I will add in the toms, cymbals and accessories to best fit the newer configuration and optimal hitting position. At that point I will add in the microphones and get them dialed in to the preamp and recording system. I still have to add a couple of more panels to the back wall and do a sound check at full volume to see if the improvements have worked…. keeping my fingers crossed.
More to follow….
More to follow..... Keep On Drumming!!!
