When you’re setting up your kit, don’t set yourself up so far into a corner that you don’t have sufficient leg room at the kit. This is huge for someone 6’4” like myself, but this is an important piece of advice for any drummer. I’ve made the mistake before of not allowing sufficient space behind my kit, which results in having to have the kick drum too close (so that it stays on my drum rug), which in turn results in me sitting too close.

Of course, the simple remedy for this is to sit farther back, right? Well sort of.

As I realized this leg room issue, I began setting my throne farther back to allow ample leg space. I suddenly began experiencing back pain at the drums, which I had never had to deal with before. This was becoming very frustrating...until I realized my mistake.

Even though my arms are pretty long, I was actually having to reach out too far for the rack tom and cymbals. What I didn’t realize at first was that I...

You probably caught the video a couple of weeks ago about “why we drop sticks” and how to avoid it. I started thinking, though, about some additional tips that I didn’t mention…

Have you ever dealt with thumb fatigue?

…that kind of pain in your thumb joint that often results from squeezing too tightly on the sticks when you play? This was something that I began to realize I was facing regularly. One time it got so bad that my hands ached for two days after a gig. I knew I had to do something…but what? I began to find some solutions, some mental and some physical. I made a video about this last summer, which I encourage you to check out if you haven’t seen it. (I’ll throw a link down below!)

If you feel like there’s a grip issue behind your dropping sticks, one of the thumb-fatigue solutions might help.

I noticed that the only time I had bad thumb pain while playing was when my hands were cold or dry. If they...