Benefits of Drumming

May is drum awareness month, so I thought a blog post about the health benefits of drumming would be helpful! If you’ve never been part of a drumming experience, it’s worth considering. Numerous research studies have shown that drumming can help decrease stress and fatigue, improve high blood pressure, alleviate pain, and manage cancer treatment side effects. Drumming can also be helpful in dealing with a variety of mental health issues and addictions.

Here’s a more extensive list of the health benefits of drumming (and a video where I discuss it):

• It creates a sense of community among the participants. Making music is a great way to foster connections between people and share an experience together. There’s nothing quite like being together in music!
• It provides an outlet for self-expression. Sometimes it’s simply easier to release difficult emotions through music than through words. It can be tough to verbalize our feelings of guilt, anger, shame, or depression. But we can express those feelings through music and deal with/manage/transform them. I’ve participated in drum sessions where people laugh, cry, and shout!
• It’s physiologically good for us! Research studies have shown that drumming can decrease the amount of stress hormones in our bodies and increase the amount of natural T-cells we produce. Who doesn’t need less stress and boosted immunity?
• It elevates your mood. Drumming has been proven to release endorphins (aka, feel good brain chemicals) and induce Alpha waves in the brain. This simply means you can feel a greater sense of well-being and happiness after a drum session.

If you’re curious about joining a drum group, let me know! We’re starting a list of interested people, so give me a call and get your name on the list. If you’d like to know more about GIM and music therapy in general, I’m always happy to answer questions anytime.