Performance-related musculoskeletal disorders in musicians are common due to the biomechanics required in their craft. Unfortunately, injuries can cause many to abandon music, so determining the best approach to treatment and prevention is key. This case study’s importance is to evaluate the optimal approach to carpal tunnel syndrome in a drummer. The patient is a 55-year-old male full-time drummer with a history of diabetes mellitus and osteoarthritis, who presented to clinic with chronic bilateral hand numbness and tingling that had been present for years. The location of the symptoms were mainly in the palmar aspect of the 1st digit, 2nd digit, 3rd digit, and the radial side of the 4th digit. The symptoms had progressively been worsening, and his discomfort was initially rated at a 10/10 bilaterally. He had tried over-the-counter and prescription anti-inflammatory medications as well as braces without improvement. His physical exam was positive for Tinel’s sign. The diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome was eventually made. The patient was treated with bilateral ultrasound-guided carpal tunnel injections with lidocaine and methylprednisolone. The other component of treatment was relative rest, which allowed us to tailor treatment to his drumming. After treatment, his discomfort was rated at 0/10 bilaterally, and he was drumming without issue. It was found that relative rest and carpal tunnel injections are effective in treating carpal tunnel syndrome in drummers. His treatment was tailored to his specific instrument type, which was a key component to the success. Upon review, there is limited to no specific information on treating drummers as a specific group in the literature, but rather more information on treating musicians as a whole. Different instrumentalists have different postures and repetitive movements, so future studies would do well to examine the individual biomechanics of the different instrumentalists to better tailor treatment and prevention.

In this thesis, the interplay between the soloist and drummer in a post-bop jazz setting is examined, studied, and implemented in my playing.    The basis for the work is six transcriptions of soloists and the accompaniment of the drummer, put side by side. Three of the transcriptions are from the 1960s, and the three are from the period 1998 to 2020. To further develop the interplay in this setting, exercises with emphasis on interplay and collective improvisation were done in a quartet featuring electric guitar and tenor saxophone. In this work, I write about the transcriptions, their implementation on the drum set, and the ensemble work to develop the concepts found in the material.   Concludingly, despite the sample size being small, I find that the drummer’s role has moved even further into a counterpoint state of mind since the 1960s. Together the soloist and the drummer create textures of sound, and they react to each other in a less immediate way, prolonging the scope and tension of the music. The vocabulary has moved further away from the idea of the ride cymbal as the centerpiece of timekeeping. Instead, drummers treat the drum kit even more as one voice whilst creating melodic structures that move the music forward.   This work could be of value to any jazz musician wanting to learn more about the drummer’s role in the jazz setting and especially to drummers and soloists wishing to develop their interplay within the band. / <p>På konserten framfört material:</p><p>"Blues to You" (J. Coltrane)</p><p>"I'll Be Seeing You" (S. Fain)</p><p>"Upper Manhattan Medical Group" (B. Strayhorn)</p><p>"Sandslott" &amp; "HJ7" (egna kompositioner)</p><p></p><p>Medverkande musiker:</p><p>Marius Zeeberg - tenorsaxofon</p><p>David Kontra - elgitarr</p><p>Jakob Ulmestrand - kontrabas</p><p>Henrik Jäderberg - trummor</p>

In this thesis, I have examined, analyzed and studied the interplay between the soloist and drummer in a jazz context.To understand it better I have chosen to study some of the masters in the history of jazz on this very subject. By analyzing legendary jazz drummers such as Elvin Jones, Tony Williams and Ari Hoenig, I have transcribed excerpts from recordings on which they are comping the soloist, and with that analyzed the topic of communication and interplay. Doing that I have gained a clearer picture of what these drummer’s concepts were, regarding the subject. With the conclusion that the vocabulary has moved further away from the idea of timekeeping. Instead, drummers developed the vocabulary to a more melodic and interactive way of playing. It has also been important to choose the right music and musicians to explore different interaction techniques. Together we have questioned the drummer's role and his/her relationship to the role of accompaniment. Finally, I did a concert where these techniques were put to the test, to see if our learning method had evolved the way we interacted with each other. In conclusion, what you can clearly see is that the concept of tension and release, dramatic dynamics and an open approach are consistently techniques of communication that all the drummers I have chosen to study have mastered. It is something rebellious and innovative that I have really taken a liking to, and look forward to explore further myself in the future. This study could be interesting to the jazz musician wanting to learn more about the drummer’s role in a contemporary jazz context. Especially to the drummer wishing to develop their interplay. / <p>På konserten framfört material:</p><p>"Untitled Original 11383" (J. Coltrane)</p><p>"Gingerbread Boy" (J. Heath)</p><p>"In Walked Bud" (T. Monk)</p><p>"Chim Chim Cheree" (J. Coltrane)</p><p> "Song Of Praise" (J. Coltrane)</p><p></p><p>Medverkande musiker:</p><p>Isac Schillberg - altsaxofon</p><p>Milos Lindegren - piano</p><p>Anton Brodin - elgitarr</p><p>Anton Berndts - kontrabas</p><p>Richard Andersson Rasheed - trummor</p>

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For over one hundred years the drum kit has been a driving force in shaping popular music, yet in popular culture the kit is not taken as seriously as other instruments, with drummer jokes abound. This hierarchy is reflected across academia and music literature, where the drum kit is least discussed amongst other instruments commonly found in popular music. Looking within the context of early jazz—one of the first styles of music the drum kit helped shape—historians and publishers were keen to ensure leading horn players told their story, while the drummers, who rarely secured similar levels of fame or recognition, had comparatively little chance to record their story. Detailed histories of the instrument are therefore scarce, incomplete, or riddled with inaccuracies and misunderstandings. This thesis presents a clear and detailed history of the instrument, from its beginnings to its early form in the mid 1930s. I then examine how the early drum kit was represented at the time through recordings, one of the most important methods of documenting how this instrument was used. Finally, I investigate how drummers performing on early drum kits today approach their playing, and how they deal with the problems identified in this thesis. In doing so I used optical character recognition (OCR) on digital archives, newspapers, interviews, magazines, catalogues and photographs from the early twentieth century, much of which has only become available in the past few years. Using these primary sources, I have constructed a reliable history and have unearthed new sources that shed light on the history and development of the instrument. Furthermore, through my own experiences and interviews of current early drum kit players, I have shown how this instrument in its early form is played, and how it differs from the instrument we know today.

A percussion performance by a skilled musician will often extend beyond a written score in terms of expressiveness. This assertion is clearly evident when comparing a human performance with one that has been rendered by some form of automaton that expressly follows a transcription. Although music notation enforces a significant set of constraints, it is the responsibility of the performer to interpret the piece and “bring it to life” in the context of the composition, style, and perhaps with a historical perspective. In this sense, the sheet music serves as a general guideline upon which to build a credible performance that can carry with it a myriad of subtle nuances. Variations in such attributes as timing, dynamics, and timbre all contribute to the quality of the performance that will make it unique within a population of musicians. The ultimate goal of this research is to gain a greater understanding of these subtle nuances, while simultaneously developing a set of stochastic motion models that can similarly approximate minute variations in multiple dimensions on a purpose-built robot. Live or recorded motion data, and algorithmic models will drive an articulated robust multi-axis mechatronic system that can render a unique and audibly pleasing performance that is comparable to its human counterpart using the same percussion instruments. By utilizing a non-invasive and flexible design, the robot can use any type of drum along with different types of striking implements to achieve an acoustic richness that would be hard if not impossible to capture by sampling or sound synthesis. The flow of this thesis will follow the course of this research by introducing high-level topics and providing an overview of related work. Next, a systematic method for gesture acquisition of a set of well-defined percussion scores will be introduced, followed by an analysis that will be used to derive a set of requirements for motion control and its associated electromechanical subsystems. A detailed multidiscipline engineering effort will be described that culminates in a robotic platform design within which the stochastic motion models can be utilized. An analysis will be performed to evaluate the characteristics of the robotic renderings when compared to human reference performances. Finally, this thesis will conclude by highlighting a set of contributions as well as topics that can be pursued in the future to advance percussion robotics. / Graduate / 2019-12-10

Computer-generated music composition programs have yet to produce creative, natural sounding music. To date, most approaches constrain the search space heuristically while ignoring the inherent structure of music over time. To address this problem, this thesis introduces NEAT Drummer, which evolves a special kind of artificial neural network (ANN) called compositional pattern producing networks (CPPNs) with the NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) method for evolving increasingly complex structures. CPPNs in NEAT Drummer input existing human compositions and output an accompanying drum track. The existing musical parts form a scaffold i.e. support structure, for the drum pattern outputs, thereby exploiting the functional relationship of drums to musical parts (e.g. to lead guitar, bru:is, etc.) The results are convincing drum patterns that follow the contours of the original song, validating a new approach to computergenerated music composition.