Im In Pain

[theacademyis...]

i have been playing the drums hardcore and my right wrist is starting to feel painful and swell. I dont know if this is carpal tunnel or if my muscles are getting stronger??

[Xanthous]

Use more of your full arm maybe? I haven't felt any pain or strain in my upper body, just my right shin from the kick pedal. And yes, I keep my foot depressed between notes.

[CRCError]

That is a classic sign of the beginning of a RSI. (Repetive Stress Injury)

By no means am I a doctor or other health professional but I *have* been diagnosed with the same injury myself.

The swelling is probably caused by the repetitive stresses of smacking your drumsticks.

What I would suggest is you lay off the drums for a bit and find a nice NSAID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAID) and rest the affected area a bit.

Also as the previous poster stated you could be injuring uourself by drumming improperly. You might do well to find yourself an instructor or friend that drums to help you with your technique.

[jordan15b]

been there done that i just stopped playing for a couple days swelling went down

[theacademyis...]

i am drumming by like flicking my wrist causing the drumstick to pivot between my thumb and index finger so is there a better way or what??

[ClinTrojan]

that is right way to hold it, make sure you got good stick control....

[MeleeMan]

w00t Post 300!.....And, yeah, drumming hurts...

[GHudston]

i am drumming by like flicking my wrist causing the drumstick to pivot between my thumb and index finger so is there a better way or what??

You're holding the sticks right I think, but drumming with your wrists is the problem. You want to try drumming using your arms, it'll save you putting that strain on your wrists.

I'd lay off the drums for a bit first though.

[KeithSkins]

I am a drum instructor, so I'll do my best to try to help those who aren't on this topic.

To avoid a repetitive stress injury, you have to use the wrist the way it is intended to be used. Your wrist is a complicated hinge joint. It can move side-to-side for a little while, but it's not really ideally engineered to do so. The best motion is a "knock-knock" motion, like you're knocking on a door. Your wrist should hinge up and down in a real natural way.

If you allow you arms to drop to your sides while standing up, hands loosely fisted, check out the angle of you hand to your forearm. It's important to maintain that.

As for your fulcrum (where you hold the stick and it pivots), I prefer it in the front of the hand, with the back fingers firm but not tight. There are different schools of thought on this, but the important parts are that you move the sticks in a natural motion and that the stick is allowed to rebound.

Marching in a world class competitive drum corps and rehearsing up to 14 hours a day, everyday, for three months, you definitely learn the value of correct technique. These techniques are tried and true, and quite frankly, there is no better test of hand technique than that environment.

Videos 5 & 6 might be really helpful for you, too, if you want something more detailed than what I just mentioned:
http://www.vicfirth.com/education/beginner_lessons/INTRODUCTION.html

[KeithSkins]

You're holding the sticks right I think, but drumming with your wrists is the problem. You want to try drumming using your arms, it'll save you putting that strain on your wrists.

I'd lay off the drums for a bit first though.

Not to try to call you out, but that is definitely not the way you want to do it. You absolutely should be using your wrists when you drum. Some techniques use the arm to assist what the wrist is doing, but you won't need them with anything in Rock Band. If you're using pure arm to manipulate your sticks, you will have next to no control, and you'll never get close to the endurance or speed that you'll get out of an efficient wrist movement, let alone the correct sound quality if you ever want to move to a real instrument.

[SSPWOLF]

I'm so glad you interjected KeithSkins...

You are spot on, a drummer should absolutely be using his wrists.

The only thing I'd like to add is that as I talk to people online I hear another big problem...

People aren't letting the drum pads do any of the work. The key to good drumming is to minimize your fatigue. Playing the drums is about rythym and control.

Ever see someone like the drummer from pantera play a 2 hour show and look "just a little sweaty" then you see your local hardcore band's drummer nearly pass out after 30 minutes?

It's because excellent drummers let the drum heads do the work.

practice letting the stick bounce in a controlled fashion so that you are striking the pad once, but getting tight bounces that hit in a rythym. (good advice for Run To The Hills, btw)

Also.. posture is very important, but it's also a personal thing. If you are holding your sticks right and you aren't bashing away and wasting energy but you are still getting sore... you probably aren't sitting right.


finally.... drumming uses muscles that people don't use often, or at least not for extended periods of time doing repetitive motions. You should expect soreness.


Oh.. one last thing..

Do paradiddles for 2 hours a day! ;)