There is this rule of thumb when it comes to learning an instrument: According to popular opinion, only those who have practiced at least 10,000 hours by their 20th birthday have a chance of becoming a master of their craft. That would be the equivalent of around 417 days of 24 hours of non-stop practice. No question: Since very few musical instruments are played while walking, this immense amount of time means, among many other things, a lot of sitting. It's a good thing that there are special musicians' chairs. A brief overview of the working conditions of a musician and the requirements that a good chair for musicians should meet.
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Music that sits
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Practice makes perfect
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A saddle for the guitarist, a high chair for the double bass player
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Damage to health from office work, not from playing the drums
Music that sits
10,000 hours is an immense amount of time. Well, a day has 24 hours and theoretically you could master an instrument masterfully in just under a year without sleep or breaks. Since most people urgently need sleep, fresh air and food, it quickly turns into 666 days with 9 hours for eating and resting time. But anyone who has ever tried playing an instrument knows how demanding it can be to deal with a tricky topic non-stop. Accordingly, the eight hours that a normal employer spends on their job, including breaks, is a sporting assumption: without weekends, that would be 1,250 days, or a good three and a half years. Including weekends, that’s just over four years of vacation-free full-time employment.
Anyone who is already dizzy with these calculation examples should keep in mind that a Mozart, a Bach or a Beethoven and certainly also the Beatles would have easily had five-figure hours of practice up to the peak of their creativity. Anyone who deals with the biographies of musicians will usually come across a fairly uneventful chapter in the front third of the book, especially when it comes to virtuosos. Often following an inner drive towards music, the protagonists - rock guitarists, punk rock drummers or world-class pianists - barricade themselves in their basements, children's rooms or rehearsal rooms and practice in every free minute. Shortly after this episode, the plot begins to pick up speed; namely at the point at which the life storyteller realizes that a lot has changed in terms of his skills and he dares to step into the public eye.
But it's not just the sheer amount of time that is crucial for success. Of course, this also includes talent and the luck of being able to pursue your pursuits undisturbed or even supported by a teacher or fellow musician. Because simply “sitting through” practice time does not create a master. Incidentally, the general public has the American writer Malcolm Gladwell to thank for the fact that the number 10,000 came into being at all. In his book "High Flyers" he took up the study of two American psychologists who found in the early 1990s that you have to spend at least 10,000 hours on something in order to become a specialist in it - regardless of your talent or special physical requirements. The derived simplification that everyone is, so to speak, a dancer, singer, acrobat, instrumentalist or competitive athlete at world level and that practically everything can be learned has subsequently been refuted many times.
A US psychology professor, for example, found that some musicians had become masters of their craft after less than 5,000 hours on the practice clock, but others had toiled for far more than 10,000 hours and still only arrived at mediocrity. The devastating news for all over-achievers: The probability that someone who practices for 10,000 hours and thereby advances to mastery levels is a good 12 percent.
Practice makes perfect
Be that as it may. If you want to become good at your subject, you have to practice a lot - and based on the figures available, you can get a good idea of how much that can be. In sitting hours that means: far too much. In addition to their instrumental practice sessions, most people will also have to do other things while sitting: going to school, for example, or working. It is therefore important that the chair on which the musician practices can be ideally adapted to the requirements of the respective instrumentalist.
As a budding professional bassoonist, Leonhard has between four and five hours of practice a day on his schedule – on average. If performances, recordings or orchestral trips are added, the workload increases. Then he spends ten to twelve hours in the studio or rehearsal room. The student at the Munich University of Music and Theater spends a large part of his time sitting. “At home I use a normal one Desk chair For practicing, we actually use more special chairs at concerts,” reports the 24-year-old. “Three things are important: that they can be adjusted in height, that they have an adjustable backrest and that the inclination of the seat can be changed.”
Most of them can be adjusted in height, seat angle and backrest Office chairs Adjusted - but special chairs for instrumentalists can still be found in specialist shops. Although “chair” falls far short of the mark: these are standing or sitting aids with several footrests, the seat of which is saddle-shaped. They do not have a classic chair back; it is more of a height-adjustable lower back support. Musicians with poor posture in particular swear by such chairs.
A saddle for the guitarist, a high chair for the double bass player
In addition to special chairs for double bass players, which have special footrests and relatively extreme height adjustability, there are special chairs for conductors, guitarists and of course drummers. Speaking of drummers: There is hardly an instrument that is immediately associated with sitting for long periods of time as the drum set. Whether in jazz, rock, pop or of course in an orchestra: percussionists physically work an enormous amount of work, which, depending on the style of music, borders on sport: Unlike chess, which also falls under the category of “sitting sports”, there is a certain physicality in the nature of drumming. If you look at the pictures of hard rock or heavy metal bands, it quickly becomes clear that the ladies and gentlemen from the fur tannery have developed an impressive physique - at the latest if they have been practicing their craft for a few years. For jazz drummers, it's more about the quiet nuances and cleverly chiselled grooves - but precision mechanics also challenge the body. Above all, because drums are played while sitting, with the exception of a few exotic rockabilly songs.
As a member of a global percussion show troupe, Jürgen is constantly in motion on stage. As a studio operator, producer, composer, teacher and member of several bands, he sits often and for long periods of time. It's almost logical that he himself has had problems caused by sitting for long periods of time and adopting forced postures. Accordingly, his words carry weight when he talks about the right approach to drumming. In his eyes, the right chair, a drum kit that grows with you, and the right way to sit at the instrument are the triad that makes back-friendly drumming possible. Of course, he speaks as a drum instructor when he insists that a good teacher adjusts his student's instrument appropriately and ensures that he learns good sitting posture. Of course, this also applies to all types of instruments, says the 46-year-old.
Damage to health from office work, not from playing the drums
"In general, both the instrument and the chair in front of it must be able to grow with you. Students between the ages of 10 and 14 in particular grow a lot - and it goes without saying that a drum kit played by a 10-year-old has to look different than a drum kit played by an adult." When it comes to the chair, a lot of it is a matter of taste. “I don’t believe in drum stools that are too comfortable; there are models with backrests,” says the professional. “The drummer in a normal pop or rock band sits in a posture that supports his attention and consciousness - and that certainly doesn't mean a bent spine in the lower pelvic area.”
The energy flow ultimately goes through the spinal cord and cannot be interrupted by a bend. "We know this from road traffic," he says, "Even a so-called recumbent driver automatically sits upright in a critical situation. It's similar with drumming: you're practically constantly on air and need 100 percent attention." Accordingly, he recommends chairs that enable an upright posture. “They should be infinitely adjustable in height and rotatable – and, depending on your taste, have an outwardly rounded, wagon-wheel or saddle-shaped seat.”
One thing is important to the 46-year-old: “The damage to my health does not come from playing the drums, but from it Studio or office work.” As a result, he got an ergonomic office chair. Here you will find a large selection of suitable chairs such as Work chairs and stools!