What Practice Does to Our Muscles
Musical practice leads to physical changes on many levels. Even the muscles themselves adapt. An international study led by the Institute of Musicians' Medicine (IMM) at the Dresden University of Music investigated how drumming experience is associated with patterns of muscle activation in the forearm.
Conducted in collaboration with research teams from Sydney and Hannover, the study used surface electromyography (sEMG) to examine the forearm muscles of 22 drummers with varying levels of playing experience. Participants performed standardised drumming tasks at different tempi on a practice pad while their muscle activation patterns were recorded.
More Efficient Muscle Activation with Experience
The central finding: As playing experience increases, muscles work more efficiently. Motor units – consisting of a motor neuron and the muscle fibres it controls – fire faster, for shorter periods and in a more synchronised manner.
This more economical activation pattern is associated with reduced force expenditure and advantages in playing technique, particularly more consistent timing and smaller differences between the left and right hands.
The observed adaptations also expand the dynamic range of drumming performance and may help prevent overuse injuries in the long term.
New Perspectives for Instrumental Pedagogy
Although the findings do not establish a causal relationship, they suggest previously unknown training-related adaptations in muscle function.
Based on statistical models, the researchers estimated that such changes may become apparent at the group level after approximately 3,000 hours of practice. For individual musicians, however, similar adaptations may occur earlier.
In the future, these findings could also contribute to the development of biofeedback systems for drumming pedagogy.
Scientific Publication
The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports and is freely accessible:
Herff, S. A., Breaden Madden, G., Beveridge, S., Altenmüller, E. & Jabusch, H.-C. (2026): Expertise-driven differences in drummers' wrist-muscle motor unit behaviour. Scientific Reports 16, 23333.
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