Having a warm-up routine right before playing for a gig or a major concert can really help a drummer loosen his/her body up. This is important because commonly, a single set can be composed of a minimum of 15-30+ songs in a single night. All those songs have their own different tempos and their own different arrangements which can really be physically demanding to a drummer. You might not enjoy playing after a while when you start to feel that something's wrong with your body and if worse comes to worst, you might end up messing up a lot because of that.
That's why having a pre-gig routine is important because it can help make your body more physically prepared for playing on the gig. So if you're a drummer that's looking for a good warm-up routine but you don't know where to start, here's a basic routine that you can use.
1. Start out with some stretching - Stretch your arms, hands, fingers, legs and even your feet. That's because drumming is a very physical activity in spite of it being musical in nature. So stretching your body can really help get the blood circulating to keep you from getting unintended cramps and other muscle problems because
2. Subdivision Exercises - If you have a practice pad and a kick pad backstage you can do some simple subdivision exercises with each of your 4 limbs. That is, from your hands to your feet. What you do is you play 2 bars of 8th notes, 2 bars of 8th note triplets and 2 bars of 16th notes on each of your limbs. This works better if you also have a metronome with you to really help you stay in time when you're playing.
3. Rudimental exercises - If you still have some time left, work on your rudiments. This time, instead of focusing on your individual limbs, you can work with either both your hands, both your feet or you can do a hand and foot combination. For starters, you can try doing 2 bars of a single stroke roll, 2 bars of a double stroke roll and 2 bars of paradiddles. These are some of the most commonly used rudiments that you can use to get yourself warmed up.
So now that you've seen some exercises you can use for yourself, be sure to consistently do them before your gigs to keep you limber and loose. You'll definitely enjoy playing more when you get to warm up correctly. Take note though, that these are just a means to help you get started on working on a routine for yourself. Other drummers have more rigid and more elaborate exercises that make use of more rudiments and even more combinations. Later on, you can eventually start making your own routines once you've introduced yourself to other exercises.
Mikhail A.V.V. Acebuche is a drummer and a percussionist who lives in the Philippines.
If you would like to see more tips related to drumming technique, warm-up routines, exercises or other things related to the drums and other percussion instruments, feel free to come my site http://www.souldrumming.wordpress.com/.
No comments:
Post a Comment