Questions about the physical aspects of drumming- warm up routine, etc

[MasterNobody]

So I've taken to playing PRO Drums lately, and it is an absolute blast. My kit is no great shakes but it's still a lot of fun. I'm looking for ways to optimize my drum experience, and possibly get a good training program too so I can work on my skills. I've encountered some uncertainties, however, and have had a couple big issues with drums. My main questions for now are as follows:

1. What is the best way to warm up, or just generally how is it best to organize a drumming session. This includes:
-Any physical stretches or warm-ups before getting behind the kit
-How to choose a good few songs to warm up
-When to stop warming up/practicing and start grinding songs you are looking to improve on

2. How long is typical to play for, and how often? Maybe it's because I'm still somewhat getting used to drums in general, but I often find that I can't play physically demanding songs (I'd say this is generally anything in the last 3 tiers, or anything with a BPM over 160, you get the idea) for more than an hour or so. And even after doing these type songs for like 15 minutes or less, I find that I'm sweating a good deal.
-As an aside to this, songs with fast bass pedal or double kicks seem to tire me out very quickly, and I'm curious whether this is more likely the result of my technique- heel down, and I kind of attack the pedal on fast hits; or rather the state of my drum pedal- a pretty worn out RB2 stock pedal that's held together with tons of duct tape at the base.

3. This is somewhat related to my question about my bass pedal/bass technique, but I've been experiencing some aches in my right leg as a result of drumming. It's the tendon/muscle/whatever behind my right knee, pretty sure it's my hamstring? Considering I'm a tennis coach I should probably know this. >_> Anyway, I find that my right hamstring aches a bit for a day or two after a long drumming session. I played for about 2 hours or so yesterday, and maybe another hour at night of much less demanding songs, going for easy FCs. So it's been over 24 hours since I've done anything demanding and I still do have a bit of a twinge in my hammy. Is this normal for people starting out on drums? I should probably stretch better before I play, but I'm wondering if there might be another issue.

So those are my biggest questions I would say, and maybe some more will pop us as discussion goes along. Thanks to anyone who can provide any sort of insight on these topics.
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[MasterNobody]

So I've taken to playing PRO Drums lately, and it is an absolute blast. My kit is no great shakes but it's still a lot of fun. I'm looking for ways to optimize my drum experience, and possibly get a good training program too so I can work on my skills. I've encountered some uncertainties, however, and have had a couple big issues with drums. My main questions for now are as follows:

1. What is the best way to warm up, or just generally how is it best to organize a drumming session. This includes:
-Any physical stretches or warm-ups before getting behind the kit
-How to choose a good few songs to warm up
-When to stop warming up/practicing and start grinding songs you are looking to improve on

2. How long is typical to play for, and how often? Maybe it's because I'm still somewhat getting used to drums in general, but I often find that I can't play physically demanding songs (I'd say this is generally anything in the last 3 tiers, or anything with a BPM over 160, you get the idea) for more than an hour or so. And even after doing these type songs for like 15 minutes or less, I find that I'm sweating a good deal.
-As an aside to this, songs with fast bass pedal or double kicks seem to tire me out very quickly, and I'm curious whether this is more likely the result of my technique- heel down, and I kind of attack the pedal on fast hits; or rather the state of my drum pedal- a pretty worn out RB2 stock pedal that's held together with tons of duct tape at the base.

3. This is somewhat related to my question about my bass pedal/bass technique, but I've been experiencing some aches in my right leg as a result of drumming. It's the tendon/muscle/whatever behind my right knee, pretty sure it's my hamstring? Considering I'm a tennis coach I should probably know this. >_> Anyway, I find that my right hamstring aches a bit for a day or two after a long drumming session. I played for about 2 hours or so yesterday, and maybe another hour at night of much less demanding songs, going for easy FCs. So it's been over 24 hours since I've done anything demanding and I still do have a bit of a twinge in my hammy. Is this normal for people starting out on drums? I should probably stretch better before I play, but I'm wondering if there might be another issue.

So those are my biggest questions I would say, and maybe some more will pop us as discussion goes along. Thanks to anyone who can provide any sort of insight on these topics.
_________________

[PuppetMaster9]

Back in the day, my main warm-up song was Painkiller, as it has fairly fast yet surprisingly manageable bass kicks throughout and the stamina accumulated from it carries over to a certain degree to the arms. You may still feel fatigue for a little, and if you do, take a break for about a minute so you can readjust; chances are, you'll do it less and less until you won't do it at all.

For arms, I guess Everlong would be a decent song to go with, or any other 16th hi-hat songs that are around its speed. My main concern personally is my foot, though.

For improvement in general, however (i.e. moving up to Expert comfortably), the one for me was Bodhisattva. It was the song that helped me differentiate bass kicks and drum pads more naturally, as I started to rely on looking to the right side for the bass kicks and letting myself adapt from there.

As for the pain, I'm pretty certain that is simply adaptation. The only fatigue I get now from playing is simply exhaustion, due to raw drumming such as blast beats, and even then, that's largely resolved after properly warming up.
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YouTube | Twitch | RB Acc (3/16/17) | GH Acc (9/8/15) | Rock Band 3 OMB FGFC Stats: G:82 / B:83 / D:82 / V: 83 / K:63

[PuppetMaster9]

Back in the day, my main warm-up song was Painkiller, as it has fairly fast yet surprisingly manageable bass kicks throughout and the stamina accumulated from it carries over to a certain degree to the arms. You may still feel fatigue for a little, and if you do, take a break for about a minute so you can readjust; chances are, you'll do it less and less until you won't do it at all.

For arms, I guess Everlong would be a decent song to go with, or any other 16th hi-hat songs that are around its speed. My main concern personally is my foot, though.

For improvement in general, however (i.e. moving up to Expert comfortably), the one for me was Bodhisattva. It was the song that helped me differentiate bass kicks and drum pads more naturally, as I started to rely on looking to the right side for the bass kicks and letting myself adapt from there.

As for the pain, I'm pretty certain that is simply adaptation. The only fatigue I get now from playing is simply exhaustion, due to raw drumming such as blast beats, and even then, that's largely resolved after properly warming up.
_________________

YouTube | Twitch | RB Acc (3/16/17) | GH Acc (9/8/15) | Rock Band 3 OMB FGFC Stats: G:82 / B:83 / D:82 / V: 83 / K:63

[ShadoWolf]

Scorehero - where Painkiller is a warmup song.
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PiemanLK wrote:

Look, someone actually had to point out that singing "solo" meant singing alone. This is why we allow people to work registers at McDonald's that can't make change and it makes me want to run my face under a belt sander. For the love of tits, how can you be on the internet in 2012 and not think "maybe I can Google this word I should have learned in first grade before making a thread about it".

[ShadoWolf]

Scorehero - where Painkiller is a warmup song.
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PiemanLK wrote:

Look, someone actually had to point out that singing "solo" meant singing alone. This is why we allow people to work registers at McDonald's that can't make change and it makes me want to run my face under a belt sander. For the love of tits, how can you be on the internet in 2012 and not think "maybe I can Google this word I should have learned in first grade before making a thread about it".

[iHomer]

The only thing I can think of is keep playing really tiring songs to build muscle until you have to stop. This will eventually help you a lot for songs with blast beats and other tiring sections. As for stretches, I sometimes stretch my arm out against a wall and just keep it there until it feels really loose.
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My Youtube | My Accomplishments | My Skype: iHomerx360a

[iHomer]

The only thing I can think of is keep playing really tiring songs to build muscle until you have to stop. This will eventually help you a lot for songs with blast beats and other tiring sections. As for stretches, I sometimes stretch my arm out against a wall and just keep it there until it feels really loose.
_________________

My Youtube | My Accomplishments | My Skype: iHomerx360a

[Quazifuji]

[Quazifuji]

[MasterNobody]

Thanks for the replies, gents. Some good advice in here, I appreciate it. =)

Pup- I'm flattered that you think Painkiller and Everlong could be warm-up songs for me. I'm not quite at that level yet, but I'd like to think that maybe in a few months I could come back and try those as warm-up songs.
I was kind of able to keep up with Everlong, but I had to take several breaks, and I had to play it on standard because my yellow cymbal can't handle stuff that fast. Disco beats would probably be a great thing to practice for arm endurance, but something slower would be better at this point. So that was certainly a good recommendation, I just need a slower tempo =P
Painkiller, on the other hand, led to my leg seizing up and me falling out of my chair again, so I think that one is a no-go as of now. xD
Bodhisattva was really good for limb independence, you were spot on about that. I just wish it had a little more variation in the first half of the song.

Shado- Come on man, you've had much better one-liners than that!

iCarson- Yeah, solid ideas. I do similar stretching with my leg. I'm mostly focused on that now because it seems that my foot gets tired much faster than my arms do. I don't think I'll have to worry about blast beats for awhile, except maybe Conquer All because I find the song to be great exercise, inside and outside of the reverse blasts. (Which are much easier on Pro with my cymbal placement)

Quazifuji- Good to know that getting tired isn't too out of the ordinary. I think a lot of what Pup said is good, about taking breaks periodically, and gradually building up to the point where I don't need breaks.
My good friend HyadesD4 went from totally incompetent at drums to being able to FC about half of the RB2 disc by playing the same setlist of challenging, tiring songs almost every day for a couple months, so I certainly have seen that the "just keep playing" approach works very well.

I've heard varying opinions on the heel up vs. heel down debate though. I think the way I play now is actually more heel up than heel down, despite what I said before. I have size 14 feet, so it's actually pretty hard for me to put my full force into a stock pedal when a good portion of my foot simply doesn't fit on it. I realize the whole pedal technique is very hard to give advice on without seeing my technique, so I think I've resolved to try to work that out in a little Skype conference with my buddy Carltheshredder.

I've devised a rough draft of a list of songs to practice, I'll probably revise this a few more times and then create a setlist to play on a regular basis, similar to the D4's training setlist that I mentioned. I'll just copy/paste it here an you guys can tell me if you have any thoughts.

Good drum songs:
warmup-
Call Me When You're Sober
Chop Suey
Today
Time We Had
Long Road to Ruin

moderate-
Take These Chains
My Curse (bass pedal practice)
Dreaming of Love

speed drills (used for warming up stamina)-
Rise Against songs

challenge-
Colony of Birchmen
Desperate Times
Conquer All (use double bass)

I'll certainly be making additions and subtractions to this list, so any input on this or on the original questions would be more than welcome.
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[MasterNobody]

Thanks for the replies, gents. Some good advice in here, I appreciate it. =)

Pup- I'm flattered that you think Painkiller and Everlong could be warm-up songs for me. I'm not quite at that level yet, but I'd like to think that maybe in a few months I could come back and try those as warm-up songs.
I was kind of able to keep up with Everlong, but I had to take several breaks, and I had to play it on standard because my yellow cymbal can't handle stuff that fast. Disco beats would probably be a great thing to practice for arm endurance, but something slower would be better at this point. So that was certainly a good recommendation, I just need a slower tempo =P
Painkiller, on the other hand, led to my leg seizing up and me falling out of my chair again, so I think that one is a no-go as of now. xD
Bodhisattva was really good for limb independence, you were spot on about that. I just wish it had a little more variation in the first half of the song.

Shado- Come on man, you've had much better one-liners than that!

iCarson- Yeah, solid ideas. I do similar stretching with my leg. I'm mostly focused on that now because it seems that my foot gets tired much faster than my arms do. I don't think I'll have to worry about blast beats for awhile, except maybe Conquer All because I find the song to be great exercise, inside and outside of the reverse blasts. (Which are much easier on Pro with my cymbal placement)

Quazifuji- Good to know that getting tired isn't too out of the ordinary. I think a lot of what Pup said is good, about taking breaks periodically, and gradually building up to the point where I don't need breaks.
My good friend HyadesD4 went from totally incompetent at drums to being able to FC about half of the RB2 disc by playing the same setlist of challenging, tiring songs almost every day for a couple months, so I certainly have seen that the "just keep playing" approach works very well.

I've heard varying opinions on the heel up vs. heel down debate though. I think the way I play now is actually more heel up than heel down, despite what I said before. I have size 14 feet, so it's actually pretty hard for me to put my full force into a stock pedal when a good portion of my foot simply doesn't fit on it. I realize the whole pedal technique is very hard to give advice on without seeing my technique, so I think I've resolved to try to work that out in a little Skype conference with my buddy Carltheshredder.

I've devised a rough draft of a list of songs to practice, I'll probably revise this a few more times and then create a setlist to play on a regular basis, similar to the D4's training setlist that I mentioned. I'll just copy/paste it here an you guys can tell me if you have any thoughts.

Good drum songs:
warmup-
Call Me When You're Sober
Chop Suey
Today
Time We Had
Long Road to Ruin

moderate-
Take These Chains
My Curse (bass pedal practice)
Dreaming of Love

speed drills (used for warming up stamina)-
Rise Against songs

challenge-
Colony of Birchmen
Desperate Times
Conquer All (use double bass)

I'll certainly be making additions and subtractions to this list, so any input on this or on the original questions would be more than welcome.
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