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Author: Richard Symister

Breath Work & Drumming Part I: Why Drummers Need to Breathe Properly for Improved Performance

MovEvolution Drumming Therapy

Breath Work & Drumming: Maintaining Your Tempo & Improving Control

 
Part I: Why Drummers Need to Breathe Properly for Improved Performance
Before you pick up your sticks, berimbau, clave or any percussion instrument, breathe.
Breathing is indeed fundamental and paramount to your precision, agility and concentration.
Has any instructor, coach or trainer ever told you to “breathe”? Why? What are the benefits of better breathing for the drummer?
 
Focus and Concentration 
Your brain needs oxygen. Poor or dysfunctional breathing might rob your brain of what it needs to read or interpret music, and focus on complicated, long pieces. Depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances can also be directly affected by poor breath work. 
 
Strength, Power and Endurance
Your muscles need oxygen to strike, slap, shake or vibrate your instrument. Starving your muscles of O2 will decrease their ability to develop as much oomph, power, speed and your muscles will fatigue more faster. 
This is for all you drummer/vocalists out there! Remember, your  vocal chords, which are also muscles, need oxygen to produce the best sound possible. The same rules apply here. Depletion of oxygen leads to a depletion of performance.
 
Pain
Poor breathing means a change in your oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, altering your blood Ph balance. Familiar with that burning feeling in your arms, hands or feet from extended playing? That’s lactic acid creeping into your muscles and comes on sooner if you’re unable to get to use that valuable oxygen. Muscle spasms? Tight muscles? Trigger points? All can be caused or intensified from poor breathing habits.
 
Core Stability 
Your diaphragm, your primary breathing apparatus, is also part of your trunk core muscles.  Your core muscles help you maintain good posture, balance and alignment while playing. Your diaphragm is the “top” part of your core, and when it’s not doing its job, it can cause the rest of your core to fail, leading to weakness, poor alignment, pain and injury.
As you can see, proper breathing is truly key to improved and safer drumming. But what kind of breather are you?
Hey, your body can’t make up beats if your body is all beat up! Contact Us to play without pain HERE!