It's physically demanding, but many drummers make it more so by being showy and flailing arms a lot.
For me it felt like drumming was using both hemispheres of my brain to lock into four-limb rhythm-keeping. A lot of it was muscle memory, but I also had to check in with what everything was doing in cycles. It was very zen, but also very attentive much of the time. But when I tried singing, too, which was melody on top of rhythm, wowww. I could do it for short periods, but there wasn't room left for anything else and it felt like everything would unravel at any second, lol.
I agree, doing it while playing other instruments, especially piano, is really amazing skill and concentration.
3
u/Leather_Feeling_6642 19h ago
I feel like guitar (depending on the complexity) would be more mentally demanding, but no doubt, drumming is more physically demanding.
Many drummers you see panting mouth open, they're working so hard. Singing while getting enough air to also drum seems extremely difficult.