If you are an aspiring drummer, this blog can help you perfect your body position while playing the drums. Sitting in a position where you have to stretch to reach every part of your drum kit is strange and disturbs good posture. Let’s begin!

Don’t Stress and Stay Relaxed

Warmup is one of the important factors that can positively impact your drumming. Other than your warmups, focusing on your posture and body position is imperative. One of the most common mistakes of a drummer is to compromise on how he sits behind the drum kit. This can lead to poor technique and a poor back position, eventually leading to complications in posture while playing your favourite instrument.

What is the Perfect Body Position Behind the Kit?

Yes, you may ask – which is the perfect body position behind the kit so you don’t feel cramped while playing. Ideally, first try sitting behind the kit and reach out for the hi-hat, the kick drum or the ride. How does it feel? Do you feel that you are reaching out a bit too much or leaning back so your ankle doesn’t hurt?

First, once you are seated, try relaxing your muscles, keep your back straight and place your hands on the side. Keep a steady breath going so you aren’t feeling tense. Next, place your legs on both the pedals. Right foot placed on the kick drum pedal and the left foot on the hi-hat pedal. See if you automatically tend to lean back when you try playing the bass drum. If yes, it's because your legs are too close to the pedal.

Make sure your right leg is not at a 90-degree angle when your foot is on the bass drum pedal. Ideally, keep it at approx. 100-105 degrees.

Now coming to your distance from the kit, ensure you aren’t too far nor too close. Another important aspect is to have a relaxed breath. When you notice yourself losing track of your breath or playing too fast/slow, stop, take a moment and breathe normally. If your breathing is in sync with your heart beat, you will automatically notice that you are on time with what you play.

Now, how does breathing affect your playing? Let’s take a usual 4/4 time feel which can be counted as 1-2-3-4. When you start counting, on 1, breathe in for the first 4 counts and the exhale for the next 4 counts. In the beginning, take it slow until you get your breath feeling right. This can be illustrated as below:

Considering a live stage performance, external sounds, smoke and lights can be quite distracting and can pile on the pressure. Most of the time, external factors like these can unsettle your breathing. However, if you are consistent with your practice and focus on your breathing while you are playing, you will notice that you will sound a lot better and can move around the kit with ease.

While all this may seem like common sense in theory, you’ll find it’s not so easy to implement in practice unless you’re diligent and pay attention from day one. Keep reading to discover the right way of holding the drumsticks in the next blog post.