Welcome to my Drumming in Harmony blog series. Today, I’d like to talk about the process of uncovering hidden tension patterns. As you’re probably aware, reducing muscle tension is a great way for drummers to avoid overuse injuries, prevent fatigue, and improve their playing. 

Working on playing-related tension

As part of my drumming practice routine, I like to sit quietly and mentally scan my body for signs of  tense muscles. Once I notice any tightness, I concentrate on allowing my body to relax that area and “melt away the tension.” Many times I can actually feel the muscle subtly lengthen and release. I have found that working on tension is a lot like peeling an onion; the longer you work on the obvious spots of strain, the more you discover deeper, more subtle layers of tightness. Often, seemingly unrelated tension patterns in different parts of the body turn out to be inter-connected.

A surprising discovery….

One day as I was going through my usual routine of relaxing the muscles around my left wrist, I suddenly noticed the right side of my lower back and hips release. It was a revelation to me to see how these two tension patterns were so inter-related; I was able to repeatedly produce a release in my lower back and hip simply by completely relaxing my wrist.

Improving your awareness

Start to listen to your muscles and what your body is telling you. The more you work on developing this kinesthetic awareness, the deeper you will come to understand your tension patterns and discover the relationships between them. Once you know where you’re developing playing-related tension, you can practice relaxing that part of your body and work on preventing the habit from recurring.


Tido Holtkamp-drum teacher

Thanks for visiting my Drumming in Harmony blog.  Feel free to leave a comment if you have any ideas or personal experiences that might add to this discussion.  If you would like to learn more about this topic, please check out my upcoming book “Drumming in Harmony: the drummer’s guide to playing with freedom, relaxation, and well-being.”

Drumming in Harmony: Uncovering hidden tension patterns
Tagged on: