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Quad players, back pain tips?
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DiruIkasu
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Dec 28, 2008
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No. 1 Posted on Aug 18, 2009 6:30 PM
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So, I finally got a "promotion" from Tri's to Quads. The Tri's were a Yamaha powerlite series, so they were like, the lightest instrument in the line. Our school just bought a new set of quads (They're Pearl Championship series, I believe), and I've been playing them now for about a week now. BUT, my back is absolutely killing me! These things are really heavy! So, is there anything I can do about the back pain, or will I just have to bear with it and get used to it? Also, are there any exercises I can do to make my quad experience a little better?
"He who cannot dance will say: "The drum is bad”
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Texray1
Posts: 1618
Joined: Dec 28, 2005
Location: Dallas, Tx
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pataflafla
Posts: 252
Joined: Mar 8, 2005
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No. 5 Posted on Aug 25, 2009 7:35 AM
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Not that my response will answer your problem, but I'm continually mystified by two drum weight related issues here:
1. Why the drum companies ('Dynasty' being the exception with their Wedge snares and Squint tenors) don't develop lighter weight/design drum shells.
2. Why SO many high school band directors and/or their drum instructors specify the necessarily heavier quads, quints or --God knows why-- "six packs" for their tenor players, when they should use triples.
HS bands are *NOT* and never will be D&B corps! They don't do [or, arguably, need] the complex shows like corps; don't have the time to develop such shows; and --particularly-- can't reliably expect to have the more developed, larger-bodied people to *carry* the heavier, larger quads, etc. that corps must use.
STAY WITH TRIPLES for HS kids! Why, why, why put them through the pain of carrying the heavier drums? THERE'S NO REASON; NO JUSTIFICATION!! The argument that "Other HS bands uses them" doesn't matter!
GRRRRRRRRRR....
--Me
who, in part, wrote for & taught [including two state champion lines] and then judged HS drum lines in Illinois and Washington for 12 years... and who, now, increasingly winces at seeing HS kids suffer under heavy drums.
pataflafla edited on Aug 25, 2009 7:47 AM
General percussion since 1957.
D&B corps since 1965.
Drum set (correctly!) since 1970.
http://jimnevermannart.carbonmade.com
...and that is *not* 2nd Wind's uniform I'm wearing!
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SPuDS
manbearpig
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Joined: Jan 16, 2005
Location: Sleepless in California
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DiruIkasu
Posts: 21
Joined: Dec 28, 2008
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No. 7 Posted on Sep 5, 2009 2:27 PM
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pataflafla wrote:
Not that my response will answer your problem, but I'm continually mystified by two drum weight related issues here:
1. Why the drum companies ('Dynasty' being the exception with their Wedge snares and Squint tenors) don't develop lighter weight/design drum shells.
2. Why SO many high school band directors and/or their drum instructors specify the necessarily heavier quads, quints or --God knows why-- "six packs" for their tenor players, when they should use triples.
HS bands are *NOT* and never will be D&B corps! They don't do [or, arguably, need] the complex shows like corps; don't have the time to develop such shows; and --particularly-- can't reliably expect to have the more developed, larger-bodied people to *carry* the heavier, larger quads, etc. that corps must use.
STAY WITH TRIPLES for HS kids! Why, why, why put them through the pain of carrying the heavier drums? THERE'S NO REASON; NO JUSTIFICATION!! The argument that "Other HS bands uses them" doesn't matter!
GRRRRRRRRRR....
--Me
who, in part, wrote for & taught [including two state champion lines] and then judged HS drum lines in Illinois and Washington for 12 years... and who, now, increasingly winces at seeing HS kids suffer under heavy drums.
Very true. But, we cant use tri's anymore for one very good reason: Modern marching band music requires quads, and sometimes quints.
Let alone, it's easy to march with four drums than 3 because we rarely play in 6/8 anymore. There's only one song we play in 6/8, and it's a John Phillip Sousa song.
It's not really possible to really play with three drums with the new modern music.
"He who cannot dance will say: "The drum is bad”
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Tanimal
TAN-I-MAL!
Posts: 485
Joined: Dec 29, 2008
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No. 8 Posted on Sep 5, 2009 5:13 PM
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DiruIkasu wrote:
Very true. But, we cant use tri's anymore for one very good reason: Modern marching band music requires quads, and sometimes quints.
Let alone, it's easy to march with four drums than 3 because we rarely play in 6/8 anymore. There's only one song we play in 6/8, and it's a John Phillip Sousa song.
It's not really possible to really play with three drums with the new modern music.
Agreed, and I don't think any highschool kids are complaining about the weight from quads as much as they enjoy playing them. quints and 6 packs are over the edge though, no music requires that madness. And I disagree with the point that highschools don't do drum feature things. Every year my school has about a 5 minute feature for football halftime show and it gets the biggest applause every time. But I get the feeling that my school works a bit different than others, the director couldn't care less about what we do as long as it looks and sounds cool, we don't do the choreography the rest of the band does at all, we just make up what we want to do on the field.
drums>life
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drumbum593
The Bum
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Joined: Sep 2, 2005
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
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No. 9 Posted on Sep 5, 2009 5:56 PM
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Actually, a lot more high school lines are doing drum breaks and playing parts that are on an almost-corps level. Of course, it's never going to be on that level of difficulty, but they still call for at least quads, and usually quints. Tris are almost obsolete in modern marching band, quads and quints are becoming the norm. Quints and six-packs may seem like overkill, but the spock drums add variety and the effect is really cool. I play tenors on a high school line, and I don't know what we'd do without quints, as much as we use the spock. Also, the weight isn't really that bad. But if it is, the best way to get your back stronger is to do push-ups and other exercises to strengthen back muscles, and just wear the drums. Once you get used to it, it's not bad. When I moved from snare to tenors, it bothered me for about a week, but after that, I was fine.
Bartlett HS
Snare 07-08
Munford HS
Tenors 08-09 USSBA South States Percussion Champ
Tenors 09-10 USSBA Natl Champ Percussion, 2nd Overall
Tenors 10-11 USSBA TN State Champ
US Army All-American Band
Tenors '11
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Boojum
that
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Joined: Jan 15, 2005
Location: the rock of Gibraltar
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No. 11 Posted on Sep 7, 2009 12:20 PM
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The majority of the strength in your back comes from your abdominal muscles. Aside from crunches, side crunches, supermans, pushups, planks, side planks, leg lifts, assisted leg lifts, and things like that, there's not much you can do besides hold the drums. And with all of those exercises, make sure you do them correctly, otherwise they don't do any good.
As for the pain itself? Ibuprofen seems to work well...
I wanted a Monty Python quote but it was too many chars...
'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.'
-Aristotle.
'Spell it right. Or else.'
-El Booj
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fftl1717
Posts: 1
Joined: Nov 21, 2009
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No. 18 Posted on Nov 21, 2009 1:20 PM
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I'm in a high school line, we just finished up our season, and are preparing for an indoor line and next year's marching season. The best tips are to stretch your back out, wear the tenors as long as you possibly can, push it a little more, then take a break. Don't stretch out your back too often though, because then you won't build up endurance.
As for the people who say that sixpacks are too much to handle, i will have to disagree. We have sixpacks at my school, and as long as you are committed to drumline as much as my line is, the weight is no problem. A couple of years ago we actually had a girl about 4' 9" march our sixpacks...
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sadrummer777
Posts: 1
Joined: Mar 24, 2010
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No. 19 Posted on Mar 24, 2010 7:46 PM
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pataflafla wrote:
Not that my response will answer your problem, but I'm continually mystified by two drum weight related issues here:
1. Why the drum companies ('Dynasty' being the exception with their Wedge snares and Squint tenors) don't develop lighter weight/design drum shells.
2. Why SO many high school band directors and/or their drum instructors specify the necessarily heavier quads, quints or --God knows why-- "six packs" for their tenor players, when they should use triples.
HS bands are *NOT* and never will be D&B corps! They don't do [or, arguably, need] the complex shows like corps; don't have the time to develop such shows; and --particularly-- can't reliably expect to have the more developed, larger-bodied people to *carry* the heavier, larger quads, etc. that corps must use.
STAY WITH TRIPLES for HS kids! Why, why, why put them through the pain of carrying the heavier drums? THERE'S NO REASON; NO JUSTIFICATION!! The argument that "Other HS bands uses them" doesn't matter!
GRRRRRRRRRR....
--Me
who, in part, wrote for & taught [including two state champion lines] and then judged HS drum lines in Illinois and Washington for 12 years... and who, now, increasingly winces at seeing HS kids suffer under heavy drums.
Ok so dude
you are underestimating some high schoolers
you are making it sound like we are not good enough to play complicated stuff on the quads, quints, or even six packs
i am a freshman and i made it onto the quints of a first place winning line
i did totally fine and our shows are extremely complicated compared to all of the other teams
High Schoolers can deal with them
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Nevermann
Posts: 5
Joined: Jul 31, 2006
Location: Whidbey Island WA
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No. 21 Posted on Dec 4, 2010 5:31 PM
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sadrummer777 wrote:
you are making it sound like we are not good enough to play complicated stuff on the quads, quints, or even six packs
i am a freshman and i made it onto the quints
Don't misunderstand me: *some* HS lines do have the players to handle "complicated stuff". I argue that the majority don't, particularly those lines who have no instructor, or change their show for every halftime [LOTS of those] and have only a vague idea of corps drumming standards. I, for example, had never even heard of corps when I got into HS band nor, except for one person, had any of the rest of the band.
My big complaint is the heavier weight of *conventional design* high-tension snares and especially tenors. You say you're a freshman, but what height & weight freshman? Too, you have the real luxury of being in a winning HS drum line [read: a "corps style" line] that plays complicated parts, which also means your line very likely has at least one drum instructor.
But ZILLIONS of HS lines don't have those luxuries and, I thus argue, why buy --and have their students lug around-- top-caliber drums simply because they're available; because they're in the catalogs or "They're what everyone's using"? That, to me, very clearly doesn't make financial, educational or physical [as in carrying heavier, higher performance drums] sense. The students sure don't benefit.
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