Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 11:30:10 -0400 The following are some excerpts from rec.arts.marching.drumcorps Newsgroup. They might help you better understand DC and what discussions are ongoing. ***************** Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 16:01:50 -0500 Since I am having a relapse of my tendonitis, I was wondering: How many of you drummers out there have wrists that are screwed up from playing....especially on Kevlar heads? I thought that my wrist pain was done, as I have not have pain for about 6 months, but I was wrong..... Mar-Jean Zamperini Hunt Library, C.M.U. ************************** Date: 6 Jan 1996 06:19:58 -0500 My wrists were screwed up for a long time. I suffered from intermittent stiffness and swelling for years. I had to quit playing entirely for about a year and a half. A few years ago I just missed playing so much that I decided to try to get my chops back and see if I could do it with out injuring myself all over again. I went very slowly at first, being sure to take my time and stretch and warm up completely and slowly. I tend to get cocky and try to just wail away as soon as I pick up the sticks and then I pay the price not only in stiffness but in playing poorly. Now I take my time and warm up properly and I only let go when I am ready. I also pay close attention to technique, making sure that I have the proper grip and hand position. Take the time to warm up properly and your problems may not develop in the first place. Snare drummers also have a tendency to use heavy sticks. I use light sticks.I choose them for their response and depend on the strength of my chops for changes in dynamics and volume. As for the Kevlar heads I think that they are the easiest things to play on that I have ever found. They have incredible bounce and I let them do as much of the work as they can. If worst comes to worst lay off the playing completely until your wrists heal. Then start over again and try to correct your bad habits that lead to the problems. ****************************** Date: 7 Jan 96 14:18:40 GMT Yup, I have severe carpal tunnel in both wrists, but it's probably from a combination of drumming, typing, and 10-key calculator work (from my job as a financial planner). Unfortunately it's at the point where I can't even hold a drumstick properly without major pain, much less attempt to play. :( **************** Date: 7 Jan 1996 16:38:23 -0500 I dont currently experience wrist pain but it is something i have worried about a little bit that and HEARING LOSS!!!!! The constant ringing sometimes. any way i am only 15 so i have hopefully alot of playing years yet to come . i was just wondering any differences as far as wrist stress goes in kevlar and other types of heads like plastic,ETC. ******************* Date: 12 Jan 1996 22:58:33 -0500 Carolina Crown is - I hope - developing a relationship with Rehability Sports Medicine in Charlotte. Part of a national chain which focuses on work and sports injury rehabilitation (as well as other rehab), they will be helping us with not only overall conditioning, but on advising specific sections of injury reduction. I have saved each post and am passing it along to the coordinator. We had a trainer visit the last camp to observe. It is my hope that this will develop into a great relationship for both parties over the next few months leading into the summer. If you want more information, please contact me. Ben Regalado, Vice President/Finance Carolina Crown *************************** I've noticed that during the last few seasons, SCV's snare line has predominately used a matched style grip while the majority of the other top snare lines have used the traditional style grip. My question is: Does this style difference affect scoring? I believe that it is universally accepted that the traditional style is a more difficult grip to master. If that is the case, shouldn't lines that use the traditional style receive higher scores than a line that plays a book of equal difficulty with the matched grip? It seems to me that playing with a traditional grip is similar to having more players in a snare line. A large line has more difficulty playing clean than a small line. Thus, the smaller line must play a more difficult book than the larger line to receive the same score. Likewise, a line playing in the traditional style is displaying more skill than a line playing the same book in a matched style. Of course, it is nearly impossible to prove this theory by looking at scores alone since the question has to do with a subset of the marching percussion family (snares) and naturally, the book difficulty will vary between lines due to experience and skill of the players among other things. So, I guess I'm looking for opinions from the drum corps community, its instructors, judges, and performers. What do you all think? ************************ Subject: Health and the kevlar debate Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 15:18:03 -0400 [most triumphant flame deleted...] > Tommy Igoe writes: > But I'll tell ya one thing Mr. Bailey; If I were caption head anywhere I would NEVER let young drummers play 10 hours a day on Kevlar. NEVER! And I think it's a shame that anyone would. Hello Tommy. I take it by this that you think playing on kevlar for an extended period of time is detrimental to the well-being of players? Have you evidence of such? (seriously, I would really like to know). I have seen lots of tendonitis, etc. on mylar, but never once in 7 years of teaching on kevlar. In my experience, the problems that players incur seem to be based on the repetitive motion of the wrist as opposed to the "hardness" of the material being played on. Your thoughts? Brad Halls, http://www.acs.oakland.edu/~bfhalls ******************* Subject: Re: Health and the kevlar debate Date: 24 May 1996 07:14:42 -0400 Hi Brad... My experience with kevlar heads were painful. It might have been that my chops just weren't good enough, or the style was wrong, but the bottom of my left forearm hurt so bad that I couldn't drum for a day or two after camps. I then went to a different corps (for reasons that would take forever to write out) and they played on mylar heads. After one of their camps my left arm didn't hurt at all, and we played more than any of the other camps that I was at before. My view with kevlars are that you have to be carefull how you use them. I would only use them in HS if you have a line that can really play and have chops. That is what we did at Athens. This year they are weaker and I think are going back to mylar. ************** Subject: Re: Health and the kevlar debate Date: 26 May 1996 20:41:27 GMT As someone who constantly switches back and forth between mylar and kevlar I'll throw my two cents in. I play on my snare drum, with kevlar head, as much as possible and through my drum corps and other marching experiences, have never had any physical injuries in my arms, nor have heard of any. I also play bass drum (mylar head) on a consistent basis and have to admit the switch is not comfortable. It seems mylar although I have no injuries from that as well, just doesn't feel as good to play on. Percussion Education On-Line is a service designed for percussionists and people who teach percussionists. Since percussion is not something that usually receives a lot of attention in the music education world, this is a unique and valuable resource. The URL is: http://otto.cmr.fsu.edu/~bula_jo/percussion/index.html ************************************************* Date: 5 Jan 1996 05:15:54 GMT I'm pleased to announce that starting in the February issue of Modern Drummer Magazine, which is presently on the newstands, I am writing a corps percussion column called Rudimental Symposium. The column will appear regularly. I'm honored to have been asked to write the column and I look forward to promoting Corps-styled percussion. The February article is on using the Role Modeling technique to build chops. If you get a chance check it out. Chet Doboe Hip Pickles END OF EXAMPLES