Just curious, does anyone else get a tired arm/shoulder when playing fast beats especially with the right side? Is there something specific that can be done to prevent that or prepare?
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 10:21 AMConsitent practice is the key to train your arms and hands to handle more vigourous and lengthy drumming.
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 11:54 AMDon't know you or how you play but I would guess you are predominately playing right handed (doum hand). You need to balance out the load. If your ka hand sounds like crap, then obviously you need to work on that.
A "f'r'instance" for a change in how you play would be what is commonly referred to as a kashlima 9/8. If on the 7,8,9 you alternate RLR instead of RRR, even just some of the time, you give your right hand and arm a chance to recover.
What you should do specifically is set aside several days a week and play with only your ka hand. There are many techniques for the ka hand alone, this is a great opportunity to concentrate on them. -
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 2:38 PMWhat Mark said is absolutely golden on many levels! Yes, what he said about balancing the dominant & non-dominant hands and the de-crapifying of a cruddy ka-this is all great stuff. But wait...there's more! Spending time every week practicing unusually "ka-saturated " patterns of familiar rhythms really helps you to develop a less "generic" style of playing. Yay!
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 1:25 PMYes, it happens to me, especially when I'm performing a LOT with loud musicians (ahem...ren faire). Practice really does help build stamina. Practice with a metronome staying as relaxed as possible. Each time you practice, bump the tempo up periodically until you hit a speed that's slightly faster than comfortable. Play at that speed for a few minutes, staying relaxed, then put it back to your highest comfortable tempo, and you'll see wonders in your sound. Do this consistently over a period of time and you'll see how quickly that "uncomfortable" tempo will go up! Good luck! -
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 1:50 PMUsually when you get pain when you are playing fast is because you are not relaxed. The adage is: the faster you play, the more relaxed you should be. When some one is trying to push themselves to play faster, inevitably they start to tighten around the neck and shoulders (a person watching you can actually see it happening). You need to just relax and let the music come from your drum as your fingers and hands touch it, but keep your neck, shoulders and arms relaxed........ and don't forget to breathe. ;-) -
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 2:07 PMOne of my breakthrough moments early on regarding relaxation was realizing that proper posture is important! Straight back and no slouching, it will help a good bit! -
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 2:14 PMAnd just a slight change in the position of the drum in your lap, and/or the distance your elbow is from your ribs can make a difference. All of these suggestions are good, and all are related and not exclusive of each other.
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 3:14 PMGreat advice everyone, thanks! I know that part of it IS the fact I don't practice as much as I should. One of the reasons is I live in an apartment and the sound carries and irritates neighbors, so I can't do much in the way of practice there. I would mute it with a pillow or something, but I can't get the tones out of it to make sure I am hitting the drumhead properly.
Does anyone know of an vids that have techniques like what some of you have explained here? Arm position and drum position I have figured out to maximize my arm not getting so tired and still get a good sound, but yes, (ren faire) is a good example of when you have to play louder, especially when doing solos and pops and such.
I have noticed that I tense up waaaay too much when trying to play louder, especially in a heavy roll. Practice makes perfect! -
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 3:45 PMGreat from from all. Try this even if you don't live in an apartment. Put a towel over the drum head, two layers thick are probably best, for fun get a towel with a pattern on it so you can really see the consistency of the strokes. This should really affect how you are hitting the drum with no overt changes on your part, it should give you a lot of bounce, make your strokes "lighter", and help you relax. Got this tip in Cairo a couple years ago and totally forgot about it.
Techniques would be single ka, double ka's, triple ka's, left hand finger rolls however you do them but omitting the right hand which ends the roll part, split fingers index-ring and/ or ring index all at done at varying speeds. Also, what I refer to as cups but what many people refer to as pops - where you hit ka's and use your right hand: thumb top joint, first finger tip, middle finger tip, etc to change the pitch. There's a couple years worth of stuff for ya. My address is... -
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 4:58 PMOkay, see, that's KEWEL, Mark! I'll have to try the towel thingy. Thanks! -
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Re: Tired arm
Thu, April 17, 2008 - 3:47 AMyeah i moved from a house into an apartment here last month and have been experimenting with different ways to muffle the sound yet get a nice tone.
that towel over the top is really good. also if you stuff a towel into the drum you can muffle the sound a lot without losing the tones by adjusting how far you stick it in. for example: all the way in touching the head is very dead of course, but if you pull it back so it's not touching the head, you can get a nice tek/pop sound, yet with less volume and very little dum. you can also vary the amount of sound by either letting the towel completely fill the opening of the drum (very dead) or kind or allowing it to partially fill the opening thereby letting air through - and it can touch the head or not. so just try a bunch of different positions.
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Re: Tired arm
Wed, April 16, 2008 - 4:55 PMDoes anyone know of an vids that have techniques like what some of you have explained here?
(Ahem) This being the Dumbek Fever tribe and all...a whole bunch of us Caveheads are gonna advise you to go to www.raquy.com and purchase Dumbek Fever I & II (each volume has a book! a cd! a dvd!!! Life is good!!) xoxoxoxo
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