Damnable crippling tendinitis

[Joseph Land]

Fellow Drummers! Anyone out there suffer from upper forearm / elbow tendinitis?

I've had pain from tendinitis in both fore arms (nearer to the elbows) for quite some time.

Which had disenabled me from playing the ever popular, punk rock (hi hat) beats; eighth notes(?).

Well, recently, I "hit" upon this method where I have actually played eighth's painlessly.

I will describe this technique as best I can.

My arm appears level, extended a little farther than halfway straight out, palm down. My forefinger & thumb hold the drumstick securely & also provide the pivot point to permit balance & sticking. Naturally, the other fingers of that hand help w/ sticking.

My wrist & lower forearm use a twisting motion to get the "controlled-bounce", as I call it. The angle of direction for the drumstick seems a bit odd, even to me. It is at a slight angle downwards & more so towards me when striking the hi hats, as opposed to a normal(?) 90 degree angle.

Unfortunately, its difficult to get the zonal, harder-hitting, back-beat this way. But at the very least perhaps another drummer, like myself, w/ this type of tendinitis will re-master those beats physically impossible to achieve previously.

I sincerely hope I have helped someone w/ this.
Please feel free to contact me anytime: joschas@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading!

Joseph C. Land

[drum_chick]

Hey JL, where in South Jersey are you? I grew up in Ocean City, NJ........

[bongobro]

...I've had pain from tendinitis in both fore arms (nearer to the elbows) for quite some time.

Which had disenabled me from playing the ever popular, punk rock (hi hat) beats; eighth notes(?).

Well, recently, I "hit" upon this method where I have actually played eighth's painlessly.

I will describe this technique as best I can.

My arm appears level, extended a little farther than halfway straight out, palm down. My forefinger & thumb hold the drumstick securely & also provide the pivot point to permit balance & sticking. Naturally, the other fingers of that hand help w/ sticking.

My wrist & lower forearm use a twisting motion to get the "controlled-bounce", as I call it. The angle of direction for the drumstick seems a bit odd, even to me. It is at a slight angle downwards & more so towards me when striking the hi hats, as opposed to a normal(?) 90 degree angle.

Unfortunately, its difficult to get the zonal, harder-hitting, back-beat this way. But at the very least perhaps another drummer, like myself, w/ this type of tendinitis will re-master those beats physically impossible to achieve previously.

I sincerely hope I have helped someone w/ this.
Please feel free to contact me anytime: joschas@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading!

Joseph C. Land

Hey, Joseph--

I'm beginning to wonder if I haven't developed tendinitis in my left arm. As you've seen from my posts (and no doubt my member name), I play hand percussion, generally in a seated position like a Cuban-style conguero, and focusing on my quinto (the smallest of my three congas). I also play a set of bongos on a stand, which are tilted a bit toward me, which is set between my conga and my tumba.

Needless to say, my left arm takes a beating (no pun intended) because I'm shootin' back and forth between congas and bongos, often fairly quickly...and, to make matters worse, I injured my shoulder about five years ago when I tried to catch something thrown from a second-story balcony...

First thought it was carpal tunnel, but my right arm doesn't hurt as badly as the left...and my doctor has ruled out anything to do with heart or lung problems...but the results are the same, man...from my elbow on down, it hurts like crazy...

Maybe I can adapt your arm technique to hand drumming?

Thanks for your advice!