Drumming In Harmony: Expanding your drumming awareness – learning how to listen

In this article, I’ll go over some ideas you can use to develop your awareness of body use while drumming. Awareness is one of the keys to converting your understanding of good posture, muscular relaxation, and ergonomics into habits that will help improve your overall playing. In my own work, I’ve realized that this process often boils down to simply learning how to listen to the signals that my body is sending me. Here is a short list of things you can learn to listen for when you practice:

Listen for relaxation

Take the time to sit at your set and completely relax your body. Take breaks from playing to let your arms and legs lengthen and rest. Become familiar with how your muscles feel when they are completely relaxed, and try to maintain that same feeling when you are playing.

Listen for tension

Scan your body for signs of muscular tension. For example, you may be practicing a drum beat and realize that your shoulder and arm are becoming tense. When this happens stop for a moment, allow the muscles in that area to relax and lengthen, and then resume playing.

Listen for strain

Pain and discomfort are signals that you are misusing your body and hurting yourself. Try to be aware if any motion is causing you strain or discomfort. Experiment with varying the playing angle of your hands and adjusting your grip.  See which technique feels most comfortable and easy.

Listen for postural locking

Pay attention to your body to see if your shoulders, head, or neck are locking in one position as you play. This often happens when you play on the high hats or ride cymbal for a long time.

Listen for evenness of sound

Check to see if the muscular effort is even between your arms and legs.  Whenever your body strains from playing a challenging rhythm, you can often hear a resulting change in the volume and character of the drum or cymbal you are playing. Try either slowing down or taking a short rest, both of which will help you regain your evenness of sound across the instrument.

Listen for an increase in tempo

Become aware of the relationship between physical tension and rushing.  When you practice slowly and focus on relaxation and precision, you build the framework for being able to play the same idea faster without rushing.

Listen for physical fatigue

Recognize when you become tired and your chops start to weaken. Taking a short break to rest your muscles, gently stretch, and move your whole body around can work wonders on your playing and help prevent overuse injury.

Listen for mental fatigue

Mental fatigue means you can’t concentrate effectively. Often, your mind starts wandering or you start making a lot of mistakes.  When this happens, take a short break to clear your mind and then start over – the results are often dramatic.

Listen for mental calm

Through meditation and mental centering, you can learn to become more aware of when your mind is calm and focused. I’ve found this to be the state of mind that’s most conducive to productive practice sessions and the development of good habits of body use.

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