Two top tips for becoming a better drummer and yes, they really do work AND I'll tell you them for free...
The better the drums sound, the better you'll play
I was reminded of this one while talking to one of the Gateway Vineyard drummers about the newly tuned snare on the church kit. She had been energised by the fact that when she hit the snare, it had good sound. There were no distracting overtones, or disappointing noises, just a good sound that freed her up to be more musical and dynamic in her playing.
Good sounding drums help make good sounding drummers.
The better the musicians you work with, the better you'll play
I have previously outlined that one of the things we do in the kind of music I play in church, is to copy other peoples arrangements. It's all very well working on new patterns and parts but if those around you aren't able to play theirs, it's just not going to work as well. But, get together with a group of players who are better than you and they will stretch you, ask things of you musically, and you'll get better. When you're creating your own arrangements, that sort of interaction is vital to make new, interesting music that sounds like you!
Don't forget though that sometimes you'll be the better player helping others step up and sometimes they'll be helping you.
I can think of two bass players that I have worked with in particular, who have made me get better. They have had such good rhythm & tone that I've stepped up my game to match theirs.
Good sounding musicians help make good sounding drummers.
Showing posts with label DiW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DiW. Show all posts
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
DiW: The hardest drum lesson?
I think I was 16. I was surrounded by the gleam of cymbals and stands and that specific smell that music shops used to have that comes from the particular carpet they used.
In front of me stood pretty much the only 'drum guy' in Norwich at the time (not that long before he went to work for Premier). I'd taken one of my vintage Premier toms (White Marine Pearl, late 50's/early 60's) with a Remo pinstripe batter, Remo ambassador clear for the resonant and...and masking tape and paper towel dampening pad!!!
He was very generous and understanding and, that day, he told me the hardest drum lesson. It's a shame it took me a further 12 years to actually learn it.
He took a drum from one of the kits in the drum room (I don't actually remember what it was) but it had a single ply coated head and he held it in his hand and hit it. I remember it sounded strange, ringing and, to me, pretty awful. Then he reminded me that he was a busy drummer and that the drum he had just played was the kind of sound he used live. He told me to take off the dampening and try it without. He told me one more thing too.
So, I promptly went home and used o-rings on my snare and toms for the next 4 years.....
I'm not sure what it took to finally help me learn the lesson. Maybe I'd just got less and less happy with my drum sound and I suppose eventually I couldn't ignore the approach the drummers all over the world were taking. Maybe it was getting to play mic'd up more and more and getting used to IEM's and a more processed sounds. Now? I hear the mistake all over the place; made by drummers who haven't learnt the hardest drum lesson yet.
You see what he told me that day, and what forms the basis of my setup and tuning ideas today, is that wherever, and whatever I'm playing, my drums should sound the best for those who are listening to them.
Given the nature of acoustic drums, especially un-mic'd ones, this means that you have to allow a brighter and more resonant sound to come from the drums so that by the time the sounds leaves the stage and hits the audience it is more balanced. It also means playing drums that don't sound as 'nice' to me which is hard; that's why it's the hardest lesson.
But you know what? Nowadays that brighter, more resonant sound, sounds just beautiful!
In front of me stood pretty much the only 'drum guy' in Norwich at the time (not that long before he went to work for Premier). I'd taken one of my vintage Premier toms (White Marine Pearl, late 50's/early 60's) with a Remo pinstripe batter, Remo ambassador clear for the resonant and...and masking tape and paper towel dampening pad!!!
He was very generous and understanding and, that day, he told me the hardest drum lesson. It's a shame it took me a further 12 years to actually learn it.
He took a drum from one of the kits in the drum room (I don't actually remember what it was) but it had a single ply coated head and he held it in his hand and hit it. I remember it sounded strange, ringing and, to me, pretty awful. Then he reminded me that he was a busy drummer and that the drum he had just played was the kind of sound he used live. He told me to take off the dampening and try it without. He told me one more thing too.
So, I promptly went home and used o-rings on my snare and toms for the next 4 years.....
I'm not sure what it took to finally help me learn the lesson. Maybe I'd just got less and less happy with my drum sound and I suppose eventually I couldn't ignore the approach the drummers all over the world were taking. Maybe it was getting to play mic'd up more and more and getting used to IEM's and a more processed sounds. Now? I hear the mistake all over the place; made by drummers who haven't learnt the hardest drum lesson yet.
You see what he told me that day, and what forms the basis of my setup and tuning ideas today, is that wherever, and whatever I'm playing, my drums should sound the best for those who are listening to them.
Given the nature of acoustic drums, especially un-mic'd ones, this means that you have to allow a brighter and more resonant sound to come from the drums so that by the time the sounds leaves the stage and hits the audience it is more balanced. It also means playing drums that don't sound as 'nice' to me which is hard; that's why it's the hardest lesson.
But you know what? Nowadays that brighter, more resonant sound, sounds just beautiful!
Monday, September 26, 2011
DiW: THE sound
The kick will have punch but with controlled energy.
The snare will be bright, cracking and short.
The Toms will be round, warm and will project.
The cymbals....well, they'll sound ok but they'll have to wait.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
That's the vision for Gateways drums. We will be playing un-mic'd for the time being but that'll be the vision when we're mic'd too.
We'll be using Evans G2's on the toms and a Power Centre Reverse Dot on the snare; porting the kickdrum and generally giving our Premier Artist Birch a jolly good clean!
The snare will be bright, cracking and short.
The Toms will be round, warm and will project.
The cymbals....well, they'll sound ok but they'll have to wait.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
That's the vision for Gateways drums. We will be playing un-mic'd for the time being but that'll be the vision when we're mic'd too.
We'll be using Evans G2's on the toms and a Power Centre Reverse Dot on the snare; porting the kickdrum and generally giving our Premier Artist Birch a jolly good clean!
Monday, September 19, 2011
DiW: What to play?
Having had a look at why we use drums in worship, here's some thoughts on how to approach playing drums in worship:
As drummers, if we are aiming to play our part (pun intended) in leading people in worshipping God, then I think it's important to be deliberate about what we play, when we play it and what it achieves.
When I'm learning a new song, or writing a part for a new song or new arrangement, I have a few things to consider. They are not so much hard and fast rules, especially the first, but here we go anyway.
Original Arrangement?
With just about any kind of church based drumming this is a key question. Most church music I play (and have heard) requires you to learn someone elses drum part. Be it the classic (and somewhat predictable) Hillsong 16th note highhat/8th note kick drum/ cool tom pattern stuff, or the smoothed out, well produced (and somewhat uninteresting) Soul Survivour offerings or the almost chaotic, unstructured Jesus Culture coolness.
I should probably add that although I may describe these styles in less than flattering ways, they are all good and valid in their own context, especially those that are designed to be copied. Yes, believe it or not, some parts are written in such a way as to make them more easy for other drummers to play!
(Please bear in mind that I'm talking about the kinds of churches I would play in, which is just a small fragment of what's going in in the UK, let alone the World.)
If I'm learning someone else's part, I have to listen to it, or watch it (Youtube, yey!). Dissect it, decide what I can play given the other points, practice it and job done.
Writing new parts, or new arrangement probably needs it's own post.
What energy level?
Fast? Slow? Powerful? Majestic? Cool? Haunting? Emotional? Shouty? Minimal?
Someone is in charge. Someone can tell you what energy level the song it meant to be. Your playing, and that of all the other musicians involved, should match that. Bringing me to my next thought....
Other instruments?
Who else is playing? What do they contribute? Playing in your own space, whilst creating space for others to play, is a key musical skill in any genre. So make space!
As a key part of the rhythm section, you have a responsibility to bring rhythm, dynamics and energy to a piece of music. If you're playing with a bass player, you need to work with them to create the rhythm section part. Sometimes you'll play the same rhythm, sometimes you'll each play different things to create something together and sometimes one of you will create the bedrock for the other to play on top of.
Just work out in advance who's doing what!
Ostinato gone mad?
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice.
This is a personal obsession of mine.
Most songs I end up playing have a repeating structure. Verse, Chorus, Bridge plus maybe some other made up bits like 'tag', 'pre-chorus'. My approach to these is to decide what each piece should be like and to STICK TO IT!
By doing this you're creating an accessible structure that those who you are leading can get to grips with much more easily and to be honest it's less distracting. I'm pretty sure you don't want to be distracting, right?
And finally.......Dynamics
I could say a lot about dynamics, again it probably requires a post of it's own. So for now I'll just add this:
Once you've figured out what pattern, feel and fills you want to play, be aware that you can play them all at differing volumes and with heavy or light feels.
And don't forget the why!
As drummers, if we are aiming to play our part (pun intended) in leading people in worshipping God, then I think it's important to be deliberate about what we play, when we play it and what it achieves.
When I'm learning a new song, or writing a part for a new song or new arrangement, I have a few things to consider. They are not so much hard and fast rules, especially the first, but here we go anyway.
Original Arrangement?
With just about any kind of church based drumming this is a key question. Most church music I play (and have heard) requires you to learn someone elses drum part. Be it the classic (and somewhat predictable) Hillsong 16th note highhat/8th note kick drum/ cool tom pattern stuff, or the smoothed out, well produced (and somewhat uninteresting) Soul Survivour offerings or the almost chaotic, unstructured Jesus Culture coolness.
I should probably add that although I may describe these styles in less than flattering ways, they are all good and valid in their own context, especially those that are designed to be copied. Yes, believe it or not, some parts are written in such a way as to make them more easy for other drummers to play!
(Please bear in mind that I'm talking about the kinds of churches I would play in, which is just a small fragment of what's going in in the UK, let alone the World.)
If I'm learning someone else's part, I have to listen to it, or watch it (Youtube, yey!). Dissect it, decide what I can play given the other points, practice it and job done.
Writing new parts, or new arrangement probably needs it's own post.
What energy level?
Fast? Slow? Powerful? Majestic? Cool? Haunting? Emotional? Shouty? Minimal?
Someone is in charge. Someone can tell you what energy level the song it meant to be. Your playing, and that of all the other musicians involved, should match that. Bringing me to my next thought....
Other instruments?
Who else is playing? What do they contribute? Playing in your own space, whilst creating space for others to play, is a key musical skill in any genre. So make space!
As a key part of the rhythm section, you have a responsibility to bring rhythm, dynamics and energy to a piece of music. If you're playing with a bass player, you need to work with them to create the rhythm section part. Sometimes you'll play the same rhythm, sometimes you'll each play different things to create something together and sometimes one of you will create the bedrock for the other to play on top of.
Just work out in advance who's doing what!
Ostinato gone mad?
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice.
This is a personal obsession of mine.
Most songs I end up playing have a repeating structure. Verse, Chorus, Bridge plus maybe some other made up bits like 'tag', 'pre-chorus'. My approach to these is to decide what each piece should be like and to STICK TO IT!
By doing this you're creating an accessible structure that those who you are leading can get to grips with much more easily and to be honest it's less distracting. I'm pretty sure you don't want to be distracting, right?
And finally.......Dynamics
I could say a lot about dynamics, again it probably requires a post of it's own. So for now I'll just add this:
Once you've figured out what pattern, feel and fills you want to play, be aware that you can play them all at differing volumes and with heavy or light feels.
And don't forget the why!
Thursday, September 08, 2011
DiW: Why?
Why do we use drums in Worship music? What's the point?Is there a biblical precedent that we're following? Well, yes and no. Yes in as much as gongs and cymbals are mentioned in the bible but no in as much as they are also used as a simile for us without Love.....
Yet there are countless drummers all over the world, playing all kinds of styles, in churches and meetings week in, week out. There must be a good reason for it right? There is and it's important to know it.
DC Talk once described God as a 'Creative Artist'. I've always liked that image, and I think it is the central reason to use drums, or indeed any gift/talent we have, in our Worship of YHWH; because everything we have is His and should be offered to him in praise and Worship. For me it is included in the 'Living Sacrifices' described in Romans 12 and that passage describes the relationship between physical worship and spiritual worship.
If, through playing music (no drummer jokes!), I can express my praise and worship of God and I can help lead others to do the same, then I have a very good reason to play!
Note that the reason isn't "to keep time" or "set a good groove" or "show how many chops you've got" or "annoy those who hate loud music!" or "because it's cool". What you play affects all of that stuff but it's no good making them the why. It would be a poor substitute for the real reason and frankly, I'd give up rather than play for any of those reasons!
Be clear about why you play. It will affect how you go about handling yourself and I think God is interested!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Drums in Worship
I'll be adding some of my thoughts about drumming within church music teams, but I thought it might be good to summarise some of my experiences:
- I have been drumming for about 16 years
- I learnt to drum by copying drummers I liked, including the drummers who played for Garth Brooks, Louis Armstrong, Beautiful South, Cheryl Crow and Matt Redman.
- I have never had a drum lesson!
- I have played in small Saxon churches, Cathedrals, sports centres, marquees, cowsheds, outdoors at Pleasurewood Hills, schools, trailers, and just about anywhere I could
- I have drummed at Christian Conferences/Festivals including Spring Harvest & Living Water
- I'm looking forward to drumming on Cromer Pier this year (well, in front of it)
- Tambourines are the most important percussive item in gospel music (save for pianos, but that's another Conversation)
- I have had to play in so many different styles including having to impersonate a train
and.....
- I would really, really like to own a Dave Weckl 13" signature snare
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