Is this a good ideia?

[akdom]

This doesn't make sense to me.

Play 45 minutes without your "glove" and you'll reach the same speed as with it.

The sensation of flying hand is just due to removing this thing after being forced to play with weight.

Nothin will ever practice practice.

Have we ever seen a dart player throwing stones? or a drummer playing with steel sticks????

D

[joaozinho]

Of course Akdon, that this sensation of "flying" is due to diference of heigth,that is very simple to understand,I just post that because I found funny,but I really think that this "gloove"help my left hand to be a bit more strong and reactive,probably it does not make sense to you because you never try it.

I loved your video whit your Bauer drums,very nice set,but the quinto seems a litle small,but they are very good sounding drums.I finally decided for Lp classics,conga and tumba,and a Giovanni quinto,now that the ring problem is gone they sound fantastic,and the quinto is just amazing,so crisp and responsive,I heard so many complains about the Giovanni series,but like you said that does make sense to me,LOL.

Qui siga la Rumba buena...

[burke]

"...or a drummer playing with steel sticks????"

Nope not steel, but google 'Digget Stick weights' or just follow this link:

http://store.drumchops.com/Merchant2/me ... ccessories

[GuruPimpi]

Hello!

My djembe teacher was explaining to us something about accuracy, strengh and he said that Trilok Gurtu has a set of heavy and long drum sticks just to exercise with them, to gain strength, accuracy and hand fitness. Maybe it is just the matter of right stress on your muscle. Although my friend fiziotherapist told me that man don't need weights to exercise, what man need is to work with/on your body and use gravitation as the best contra force.

my 2 cents,

P.

[windhorse]

Sometimes I just sit with arms relaxed, and hands resting on the drum, nice and flat. I did this last night for a long time while I watched TV.
This is a great muscle memory exercise, NOT DOING ANYTHING. Your default should be in the relaxed position, not the tightened heightened contracted position.

[Joseph]

My view is that if one wants to strengthen muscles that enhance drumming performance, then a regular upper body workout regimen would be most conducive to skill development.
Think of it as a system wide thing: the better the whole system (your body) works....the better it performs.
There are many easily performed exercises (pushups, pull-ups, hand crunches with a rubber ball, light barbell arm lifts, etc, etc,
ad infinitum) that can be used to tone and strengthen, and complement the muscle memory development of drumming skills.

Pain resulting from the act of drumming could be equated to “Repetitive Motion Syndrome”, which afflicts those who (usually by the nature of their work) do the same motions over and over, and end up damaging some part of themselves in the process.
One of the palliative measures for those who suffer from this is to take a break...get up and do something else…use other muscles.
There are many possible combinations of muscles involved in the act of drumming, and in my view, it is preferable to tone & strengthen all of them.

Hand drumming by its very nature is repetitive, and I think the first order is to learn the techniques required, while at the same learning how NOT to hurt yourself.

Sometimes I just sit with arms relaxed, and hands resting on the drum, nice and flat.....
....This a great muscle memory exercise, NOT DOING ANYTHING. Your default should be in the relaxed position, not the tightened heightened contracted position.

I think that is an excellent observation.

[joaozinho]

I agree Joshep.You need to be in balance,all of your body.I swim a lot.But I dont think that be in front of a TV whith the hands in your drum going to make you better,come on....

[Joseph]

But I dont think that be in front of a TV whith the hands in your drum going to make you better,come on....

Heh, Heh....notice I edited out the TV in the quote I used.

My perception of what Windhorse was attempting to say:

We tend to think of exercise as doing the heavy lifting...working to get stronger, faster, blah, blah.
It is worthwhile to stop every now and then, while practicing, and to relax parts of our body that we have held in tension....and just to be conscious of that relaxed feeling
...because that is how we should be feeling, even while executing a highly energetic rhythm sequence,

I rate relaxation as an essential element of skill development.

It is sometimes a most difficult exercise to just stop and be conscious.

[CongaTick]

At my age I do everything I can to overcome my "default relaxation". To get thinner? No shortcuts. Eat less. To get faster, surer, stronger on congas? No shortcuts. Start slow and the 3 P's (Practice....etc)

[alabubba]

Efforts to even up the strength, articulation and skill of the right and left hands are probably made by most (all?) of us as we progress with this instrument.

My dominant hand can keep going long after the other hand starts getting fatigued (always noticed in the forearm first), and I am steady working to bring my left hand up to par with my right hand. I currently do "long interval" training with my left (weak) hand using a shuffle, but in reverse: starting with tips on the one rather than the heel.

I work this relatively slow, using as much wrist action as possible and trying to minimize use of the forearm. I'm finding this to be very helpful, both for playing fast tumbao with less fatigue, and also for developing a stronger, more pure and balanced sounding shuffle.

My current goal is to always feel fresh enough at any time during the concert to enthusiastically play anything in the band's repertoire without concern of losing articulation due to left forearm fatigue. I'm pretty much there, and now working on increasing the margin. Maybe this exercise can be of use to you too.