Since 2008, Blondie drummer Dr. Clem Burke has worked alongside a team of academics to study the physical effects of drumming during rock performances. The Clem Burke Drumming Project uncovered surprising statistics showing drummers can reach the same physical exertion as professional athletes. At the same time, the team carried out the world’s first Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans for drummers. In the process, they discovered changes in brain function shown to aid neurodiverse brain conditions. Could drumming be more than just a time-keeping musical pursuit? Learn more about the science behind the sticks.
Meet the Team
- Professor Marcus Smith: Professor of Applied Sport and Exercise Science, University of Chichester
- Professor Stephen Draper: Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange, Hartpury University
- Dr. Ruth Lowry: Reader in Exercise Psychology, Essex University
- Professor Steve Williams: Head of Department of Neuroimaging, King’s College, London
Research Process
The CBDP began with a focus on the physical side of drumming, but you quickly found insights into brain function. How did that occur?
Marcus Smith: We developed a model working with the Great Britain Olympic boxing team for about a decade. The idea was about understanding performance and threats and limitations to performance. When we formed the Clem Burke Drumming Project in 2008, we wanted to understand those demands better. Pretty quickly, we got swamped with many different individuals from different disciplines. All of them said they used drumming but didn’t understand why the benefits were there.
"When doing two things simultaneously, your brain is even more plastic, receptive, and responsive. Drumming is perhaps the best analogy we have in the modern setting for that."
Steve Williams: We started with our healthy volunteers. They were doing two or three treatments of drumming training sessions per week for up to eight weeks. We wanted to visualize the changes in the brain, reflecting the improvement in their drumming ability. We know from studies going back decades that it’s a double whammy when you’re performing physical activity and using your brain.
When doing two things simultaneously, your brain is even more plastic, receptive, and responsive. Drumming is perhaps the best analogy we have in the modern setting for that. You’re working hard physically while your brain is learning this new ability, facilitating plasticity in the brain and learning.
Drums and the Mind
From there, you found those changes could benefit people with various brain conditions.
SW: When we looked at the brain scans, we realized the changes were relevant to brain development conditions. If someone is dyspraxic, they might struggle with motor coordination. The scans were also relevant to the parts of the brain that mirror what someone else is doing. If you watch someone teach you to drum, you’re mirroring their actions. That’s a massive struggle in autism, where people don’t perceive behaviors through someone else’s eyes.
Plus, you’re learning to drum, but also when to pause. That can be important for impulsive disorders, such as ADHD, where it can help to control inhibitory behavior. So, we’ve been able to come up with something which does no harm, has no side effects, and helps us visualize how the brain changes, learns, and becomes more plastic. We focused on adolescents. However, I think this would be equally relevant in adults with conditions like a stroke or neurodegeneration like dementia.
"If you look at a heart rate trace from the highest level of soccer, compared to high-level drumming, you won't see much difference."
Physical Effects
Tell us about the physical effects drumming has on us.
Stephen Draper: If you look at a heart rate trace from the highest level of soccer, compared to high-level drumming, you won’t see much difference. There is some variation regarding intensity and the varying nature of the exercise. In multi-sprint sports, you’re active in the game. You’re jogging, then sprinting. But other measurables are very similar.
Looking at sweat rates, they’re also similar. As an average, you could also equate drumming to volleyball from the published data. But that’s an average. Within our pool of drummers, some were drumming much harder. They were burning close to 900-1000 calories per hour. So it depends on the genre. In drumming, there is a pretty broad range.
So drumming is a legitimate form of physical exercise?
SD: The obvious answer is yes. In the paper, we talk about ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine). The physical activity guidelines fall well within recommended levels of physical activity. And so it is, without doubt, exercise at a level with physical benefits. We certainly consider it a legitimate form of exercise.
Benefits
How have you observed drumming impacting people’s day-to-day lives?
RL: Alongside MRI data, we’ve also collected objective measures of things occurring outside the brain, observing what occupational therapists typically refer to as “activities of daily living.” These are discrete tasks that functioning individuals don’t tend to consider. However, people with impaired motor coordination—like stroke patients, cancer survivors, the elderly, or children with dyspraxia—may find these tasks very difficult.
"Within a group drumming circle, there's an opportunity to learn, feel, restart, and try again. And there's no judgment, essentially."
They can include things like tying your shoelaces. In the case of the children we worked with, it was activities around brushing their teeth. But we’ve also seen drumming help with lifting heavier objects, holding their pencil properly, and sitting up correctly in their seat at school. We can think of these as challenges children face and struggle to overcome. They can be personally distressful but can also distress the rest of the group, teachers, parents, and siblings. That wider circle of people can also benefit.
How would you sum up the health benefits of drumming?
MS: Drumming is the ultimate workout for mind, body, and soul. It satisfies all those areas. I’ve often told the team that if we’d invented a pill that gives us the same outcomes as drumming, we’d all be multimillionaires.
"Drumming is the ultimate workout for mind, body, and soul. It satisfies all those areas."
SD: I did a lecture recently. On my final slide, I wrote, “The perfect model of well-being?” I think drumming is a great well-being model that pulls together all the things we know are good for us in quite a cool way.
RL: For me, it’s an infinite activity with endless permutations. So you’re constantly learning. If you drop the ball within a sport, the sport stops. Within a group drumming circle, there’s an opportunity to learn, feel, restart, and try again. And there’s no judgment, essentially.
Key Takeaways
- CBDP’s research has shown that drumming can take our resting heartbeat from 60 to 200 BPM.
- Breathing rates can rise from 15 to 50 breaths per minute.
- Vigorous drumming can result in sweat loss rates of up to two liters per hour.
- Drumming can force our brains to adapt, developing improved pathways between different regions of the brain.
- The CBDP found improvements in motor control, movement coordination, working memory, response times, action planning, and attentional control in drummers.
- Changes in the Mirror Neurone System or MNS—the part of our brain that generates empathy—benefit people with conditions such as autism.
