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Luddite
Mostly intentional comic relief
I have struggled with this off and on for years. I’ll go a decent amount of time laying well, capable of pulling off things like Barracuda by Heart or Achilles Last Stand and the Wanton Song by Zeppelin, and then my right foot goes sideways. I get spasms and cramps, and my toes will literally curl under while I’m playing. The brain foot connection that Houndog and Sambo84 talked about happens to me as well. It’s almost like an intermittent short circuit.
It was really bad before I moved closer to the bass drum. I have freakishly long legs for my height, and I used to sit pretty far back, which eventually led to some pretty severe cramps in my thighs and calf’s.
I worked hard on ergonomics, thighs above parallel, trying to center the throne better underneath me, high hat pedal position, beater angle and spring tension, and it’s helped. A couple of friends of mine who play drums commented on how loose my spring tension was and encouraged me to “tighten up” a bit to let the pedal do a little more of the work. That has mostly helped, but it has also made doubles and more syncopated beats like the ones referenced above more challenging to pull off. It’s a fairly recent change so I need to be patient.
The fact is, I’m 63 years old, I worked in a foundry from the age of 36 to 61, I was in two motorcycle accidents, one through my own stupidity and one through the carelessness of a driver who wasn’t paying attention and damage was done to my body. If I don’t get enough sleep and don’t hydrate enough, I pay the price. It’s easier for me to soldier through it when playing with other musicians, and is more of a problem when I’m practicing. It is frustrating. Sometimes, it gets bad enough that I feel like I’m relearning how to play. The one thing that I’ve learned is that relying on one technique is a recipe for disaster for me. I have tried to go all heel down, all heal up, all heal toe, ball of the foot, up on my toes, and it’s great until it isn’t, so I’ve been trying to switch up and know what works best when. One limitation that I have is that I can’t bury the beater anymore. It wreaks havoc on the right knee that I hurt when I got hit by a car on my motorcycle. What once was a non-issue can become an issue as we age!
It was really bad before I moved closer to the bass drum. I have freakishly long legs for my height, and I used to sit pretty far back, which eventually led to some pretty severe cramps in my thighs and calf’s.
I worked hard on ergonomics, thighs above parallel, trying to center the throne better underneath me, high hat pedal position, beater angle and spring tension, and it’s helped. A couple of friends of mine who play drums commented on how loose my spring tension was and encouraged me to “tighten up” a bit to let the pedal do a little more of the work. That has mostly helped, but it has also made doubles and more syncopated beats like the ones referenced above more challenging to pull off. It’s a fairly recent change so I need to be patient.
The fact is, I’m 63 years old, I worked in a foundry from the age of 36 to 61, I was in two motorcycle accidents, one through my own stupidity and one through the carelessness of a driver who wasn’t paying attention and damage was done to my body. If I don’t get enough sleep and don’t hydrate enough, I pay the price. It’s easier for me to soldier through it when playing with other musicians, and is more of a problem when I’m practicing. It is frustrating. Sometimes, it gets bad enough that I feel like I’m relearning how to play. The one thing that I’ve learned is that relying on one technique is a recipe for disaster for me. I have tried to go all heel down, all heal up, all heal toe, ball of the foot, up on my toes, and it’s great until it isn’t, so I’ve been trying to switch up and know what works best when. One limitation that I have is that I can’t bury the beater anymore. It wreaks havoc on the right knee that I hurt when I got hit by a car on my motorcycle. What once was a non-issue can become an issue as we age!
