DRUMS!!!

[Beatdown Richie]

There's a poster in my local gym advertising drum lessons with the claim that drummers have the same stamina as professional athletes (or premiership footballers at least).

Hyperactive, heavy-hitting drummers like Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy or Brent Smedley definitely get an awesome workout, but I think it takes a few years of practice until you can play fast enough for it to be physically exhausting.

I've been playing for nearly two years now, although I wouldn't call myself a drummer yet. Still working on the absolute basics - the double stroke roll is still an enigma...

[ermghoti]

Hyperactive, heavy-hitting drummers like Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy or Brent Smedley definitely get an awesome workout, but I think it takes a few years of practice until you can play fast enough for it to be physically exhausting.

Vinnie Paul says don't rely on drumming for maintaining general conditioning.

[Permalost]

That's pretty cool. I've got a dumbek, just a little one, and it's pretty cool. We had a drum circle at my house on new years and a friend brought a pretty nice one that actually had little cymbals like a tambarine mounted near the head on the inside of it. It made a really cool sound. I don't know where that one came from but I'm thinking about getting one!

Neat. I got a drum light from my GF for Christmas- it sits in the drum, and lights up either blue or red depending on the tone (dum or tek/ka).

I like the dumbek compared to the djembe because it's a little more rigid and delicate, so you can drum fairly lightly to get a good sound, which means that you can also drum very quick beats since your arms don't have to move as much.

One of the guys that sometimes trains in my backyard is a pretty good self-taught tabla player, and my Hawaiian training partner plays djembe.

[Diesel_tke]

That's cool! I need to buy a few of those. It would really be cool when I play my kit. I like how it just sits inside the drum without having to mount it.

[cereus]

When I was in high school I got into rock and roll and metal in quite a big way (my taste in music has since broadened) and my best friend at the time took up the drums because we were totally going to be a famous band. He was the only one who actually bothered to learn an instrument. He was truly talented, within about 6 months he had his head around dozens of rock and metal staples. He gave it up completely a couple of years later when he turned his back on rock and metal. One of the true tragedies of my young life.

[sazahko]

I've been a drummer for the last 10 years or so; started on orchestra/concert band stuff - snare, bass drum, cymbals, etc. - and then moved to kit once the band I was in purchased one. Mostly been playing kit since then, but I've played around with a couple of hand percussion styles and just really enjoy percussion on the whole.

Also wanted to echo earlier thoughts about drumming crossing over into stick work - definitely observed that as well in the minuscule amount of FMA I've done previously. Great to hear from other drummers on BS! Thanks, Diesel.

-Sazzy

[Auszi]

I used to play in a post punk band. I can say that it was the only thing keeping me fit at the time. Problem was I didn't have a kit at home, so I got locked into playing one style and I found that the quality of my drumming actually went down even though I was playing a lot more.

There were some times when I would just want the concert to end because my arms and wrists were so sore and I was exhausted, I just couldn't keep playing and didn't want to go out on a messed up song. Shitty guitarist though would always try to keep going, I tried to explain to them that it was easier for them energy wise than it was for me but I don't think they believed it.

[Diesel_tke]

DRUMS!!!

Yeah, I never liked being cornered into playing one type of music. After a while you get frustrated and feel like a caged animal. It's always fun playing to music but I like playing alone, with the free expression better.

Has anyone seen the movie: "intangible asset no. 82"? It's on Netflix. I've seen some esoteric drumming before in drum circles but never anything on that level. To me it seemed like a combination of drumming and taiji. I'd be curious to hear other drummers views on that movie.