Drumming News :
By Rick Van Horn
Today’s technology has produced its own vocabulary, including a number of terms that are hybrids of words used in science, industry, academics, etc. Such a word is: “ergonomics.” Simply put, ergonomics is the relationship of the human body to work, including the physics of motion, mechanics, and the design of objects like tools and equipment.
I’ve given a lot of thought to the relationship of a drummer’s body to the drumset, and I’ve come to one inescapable conclusion: Drummers need to be more concerned with ergonomics than do any other instrumentalists.
Let’s face it: The drumset is the most physically oriented instrument of all. It must literally be built around the person playing it, and must fit that person’s physical makeup. If the principles of ergonomics aren’t addressed as part of this process, the result can be impaired playing ability, reduced comfort, and even physical injury. Of course, different styles of music tend to call for different setups, and whether one plays part-time, full-time, or on tour can make a difference. But the suggestions that follow still bear consideration by drummers who play in any style, and at any level of the business.
To begin with: You can’t fight gravity and win. Not for long, at any rate. The earth is a lot bigger and stronger than you are, and can exert a lot more force than you can. The oldest principle of physics is “what goes up must come down,” and any effort to contradict this principle is going to take a great deal of energy to maintain.
This principle applies to drumkits primarily when it comes to the height and angle of cymbals (and to rack toms, to a lesser degree). The higher and farther away from you the cymbals are, the more energy (and time) it takes to overcome gravity in order to reach up and hit them. Conversely, the lower and closer your cymbals are, the less energy it takes to play them.
This equation is most important when it comes to ride cymbals and hi-hats (including remote hats). Sustaining a complicated or fast ride pattern is difficult enough without having to do it on a cymbal that’s shoulder high or above. You should make every effort (no pun intended) to keep your ride cymbal and/or hi-hat(s) at a level that maximizes relaxation (rather than tension or strain) in your arm. Under most circumstances, the human arm works best for this purpose when held comfortably at the side of the body with a more or less 90-degree bend at the elbow. I realize that the placement of drums on the kit may make this precise position impossible, but the closer you can come to it, the greater your endurance will be, and the better time you will be able to maintain over the course of a long, tiring performance. The stick should be able to strike the cymbal in as close to a parallel plane as possible. That means that if the cymbal is absolutely horizontal, you should be able to comfortably hold the stick virtually horizontally above it; if the cymbal is angled slightly, you should be able to angle the stick to the same degree just as comfortably.
Crash cymbals obviously are not played as much as rides and hi-hats are, but they generally must be struck with more force. This means that keeping them within a relaxed and comfortable reach is very important. I know that it looks cool to have crashes flying high overhead on a kit, the way many stadium-rock drummers do. But the fact is that cymbals positioned that way make the drummer work harder to reach them. Personally, I have no desire to work any harder than I have to.
Your crash cymbals should also be angled in such a way that your wrist doesn’t have to go into unnatural contortions to get the body of the drumstick into the body of the cymbal. Acute angles are generally good only if you want to minimize stick impact (such as on a very soft jazz or lounge gig), since it becomes almost impossible to do anything but glance off the cymbal with a stick tip.
Rack-tom height and angle relate to gravity as well, since a drummer generally has to lift his or her sticks up above the main “playing level” of the snare drum in order to strike the toms. Again, the higher or farther the sticks have to travel to get up above the toms and back down into them again with sufficient impact force, the more effort is going to be required. It isn’t accidental that the big-band drummers of the 1940s tended to set their toms fairly low and flat. They were playing long gigs and fighting a lot of other sound on stage. They needed to maximize their efforts while conserving their energy. The low, flat positions of their drums and cymbals evolved from that need. Today’s club and casual gigs can be just as long, and the playing is often even more strenuous. Consequently, the need to conserve energy is every bit as great.
Next time we’ll address the extremely important issues of seat height, along with bass drum and hi-hat positioning. Stay tuned!
Drummer, educator and journalist Rick Van Horn is best known to the drumming world through his twenty-four years with Modern Drummer magazine. Rick started as a regular columnist in 1980 and, after joining the MD staff in 1983 as managing editor, Rick was later promoted to the post of senior editor— a position he held until February of 2008. Within that period he also produced and emceed eighteen consecutive Modern Drummer Festival Weekends, making him one of the most recognizable personalities in the drumming industry. @rick.vanhorn.73
