HOW CAN you work as hard as a Premier League footballer without getting out of your chair? Try drumming.
Scientists have discovered how hard drummers really work by using tests developed with Blondie’s drummer, Clem Burke.
Sports scientists Marcus Smith and Steve Draper have been working with the Blondie drummer over several years to gather data on the physical demands of drumming. They will demonstrate their findings at tonight’s Biorhythm Live event at the Science Gallery in Dublin.
“We have designed an incremental drumming test to exhaustion,” said project leader Dr Smith yesterday.
When they are performing a full-length gig, “the drummer is playing for 90 minutes, the equivalent to a football match”, he said. Drumming for an hour can burn up to 600 calories. The exercise is intermittent so the heart rate goes up and down regularly.
The physical demands of drumming during live performances could be compared to football or hockey, where activity varies from a gentle jog to much more intense exercise. Just like athletes the drummers must be “fit for purpose”, Dr Smith said.
Not only are the gigs tiring but for a professional drummer there can be a lot of them. “A band may do 100 to 150 gigs in a year, all over the world,” said Dr Smith. This is a schedule that would make a professional athlete wince.
The researchers are now collaborating with St Richard’s Hospital, Sussex, in the hope that drumming might be used to tackle the problem of obesity.
The hospital deals with very obese people and “the drumming is another tool for intervention”, said Dr Smith. Drumming is an exercise that doesn’t require the public exposure of an activity such as swimming.
Dr Smith’s research was based on using a “click track”. This is played into the drummer’s headphones, and dictates the drumming speed. The speed is slowly increased, making the drummer work harder. Heart rate and breathing are monitored to show the effort involved.
Tonight’s event will include a live demonstration of this test with the help of Irish solo drummer RSAG (Rarely Seen Above Ground), aka Jeremy Hickey.
Rhythm is the first of three themed evenings at Biorhythm Live, which runs until October 1st. The next event will have Emotion as its theme and will include an exploration of how your skin can betray how you really feel about a song. The final event theme is Voice, and includes a performance from beatbox master Shlomo.