Church drumming- an adventure like no other

dkerwood

Silver Member
I came to church on Wednesday night for praise band rehearsal, and had to laugh. The band leader had told me he wanted to use some of his new platforms to define some space for drums, bass, keys, guitar... but I was expecting the 8" platforms- just enough for a little lift. Imagine my surprise, then, when I walk in and see my drums set up on the HUGE 30" platform! It's also on the edge of the 3' stage, so the front row of people to the side literally have the drums over their heads!

In any event, I didn't think any good could come from the congregation being UNDER my cymbals, so I hauled out the old drum shell. I set it up about 2-3 feet in front of the drums to help save my ears, but before we got started, the leader asked me to move it closer to help shield the bassist from my volume. Meh. My ears came away from rehearsal ringing.

So this morning, I brought my earplugs and just played at a nice mezzo forte. Sounded ridiculously loud to me, but the leader kept smiling and saying it was great, so I kept it up. Fun times.
 
Church is a strange animal. I like to be center rear of the stage when I play out, but very rarely do you get that in church, because then the pastor is standing in front of a very busy backdrop with tons of shiny surfaces (if there's video taping or projection screens, that can be really distracting).

You are often in an iso booth or playing behind plexiglass. That means the monitor system has to be spot on. I played at one church that had a single wedge for monitor, and it was on a line in that was shared with everyone else's monitors. So I had way more vocals than I wanted and never enough piano, which at the time was the must-hear instrument. Finally they made a few separate lines for monitors, which made a huge difference.

At my current church, the drums are miked and they have in-ear monitors with individual control panels for everyone, which is untold luxury. I can turn myself up in the personal mix so that I'm not overplaying, drop the vocals back, and bring up the key instruments I need to hear. It is wonderful.

Would love to hear some other challenges/war stories from the sanctuaries...
 
30' drum riser? amazing! i don't play in church normally, but i did do a church gig about a year ago. i used the church's drum kit positioned on a postage stamp size riser, so cramped that the throne had to be pushed way forward just to fit. it was so awkward i felt like my knees were hitting my chin! and i was super paranoid because if i accidentally slid the throne back one inch, i would have fallen backward off the riser! somehow i got through it without incident.
 
I play at my church as well. I was told a few months ago that they were considering putting me in front of the stage so people could see me better, but decided not to. I told them that was a good decision. I told them it doesn't matter to me if people can see me. They'll definitely be hearing me and that's all that matters. Playing at the front of the stage would just be bizarre.

At my current church, the drums are miked and they have in-ear monitors with individual control panels for everyone, which is untold luxury. I can turn myself up in the personal mix so that I'm not overplaying, drop the vocals back, and bring up the key instruments I need to hear. It is wonderful.
Yeah, we use those too and they're great. I think they're called Avion or something like that. Being able to turn people up who you need to hear (or down if they're incapable of playing with the drums and screwing up the tempo of the band) is pretty nice.
 
The most recent setup change has forced me to the right hand end of the altar, behind a plexi planel, listening to a headphone mix with some piano, some guitar, huge amounts of ground noise, and no bgvs. I can only hear the choir thru the PA, which makes them sound like they're dragging...

Plain awful...
 
Excuse me for bashing religion or churches. Not my intent. I had a truly aweful experience as a church musician and it came in the guise of a new "worship leader".

I auditioned and got the drumming job under a very well respected worship leader. I played for 4 months before he decided to leave (much to everyone's sadness) and the pastor went out and found a new leader equal to his own egotism and arrogance to be "leader". And that's when everything changed from being a nice experience to being a totally shitty one.

The accoustics were horrible. They had bare plaster walls, no drum sheild, and this "leader" bitched whenever I wanted a monitor. But hell, the guitar players were free to turn it up as much as they wanted. I was always told I was a drummer and therefore "didn't need music". I mentioned they may want to invest in a drum sheild and I was told to "let them worry about it".

Then they did the dumbest damn thing they could have done. Went out and bought a very cheap, used, electronic drum set that would malfunction during services. Yep, I got blamed when the electronic pads didn't work, or the cymbal pads didn't repond when touched. For the amount of money they spent on this electronic POS, they could have bought a really nice drum sheild to use.

Then after all this crap, the "leader" fired me from my volunteer position and brought in his buddy from another band he plays in to be drummer. And they didn't even have the guts to tell me themselves. I had to learn about it from another church member the day before a scheduled rehearsal.

So yeah, this was a while ago, but thinking of it still makes me mad. It will take something really special for me to play in a church environment again. I've found some church musicians to be the snottiest folks on the planet.

And I've had enough of pastors and "worship leaders" sleeping around with choir members, screwing the organist, trying to seduce the cute college piano player, and generally acting like ally cats all in the name of "perfecting" the music.

Yep, playing in a church environment is an adventure like no other!!
 
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"an adventure like no other" perfect description. I play with a local church for their contemp
service once a month. Its night and day compared to my regular rock band. HUGE egos in the church. Just feels so rigid and structured I kind of loose my groove.....I still enjoy it though and usually feel really good when we're done..
 
Anyone ever played in one of those churches where they pick up snakes and whatnot? I'd put a machete in my stickbag if I was ever in that gig.
 
Some bad experiences here. Mine are mostly good. We don't have a lot of expensive monitoring equipment, but we do have a handful of humble and excellent musicians. I play drums or bass and our band leader writes a lot of songs herself. Of course there are egos, mine included, but nothing like the ones described below. If that happened I would just back out.

Davo
 
What I should say is how useful to a drummer church worship is. It's mostly pretty straight-forward but you have to be uber alert to what's going on around you and make sure you follow the leaders direction. Learning to play with dynamics is crucial in church and that has really helped my playing. Serving others and improving the quality of worship are the main reasons for me playing in church.

Davo
 
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It's mostly pretty straight-forward but you have to be uber alert to what's going on around you and make sure you follow the leaders direction.

+1

A healthy worship environment will include a certain of "free-flow" (can be loosely translated as "improvisation"). This will require the musician to monitor a variety of indicators at the same time: congregation's reactions, musical director cues, singers' inflexions, lead piano changes, ministers' cues, etc.

The playing may not be advanced material, but it does present a series of challenges...

Thanks for leveling things Davo... (Col. 4:6)
 
Here is a YouTube clip of our Church service. This is at Bayside Church in Granite Bay, Ca. The lead guitarist is Lincoln Brewster and the drummer is Mike Johns. It was an amazing service! I've only been drumming a year but this was incredibly motivating to me.

I just took this from YouTube, I didn't shoot the video. It's a long video but it's worth it....I think.

http://www.youtube.com/user/davesworlddesigns#p/u/3/til2ik_rpf0
 
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That's amazing. Just yesterday a friend mentioned the Bayside church for a suggested visit when i am in Sacramento.

Davo
 
Want to give a +1 to what Davo said. For every not so good experience in praise bands (and I count those experiences by the service, not by the church, fortunately), I have had many, many rewarding and exciting experiences drumming for worship services - and that's not even counting the spiritual aspect of the experience.

While it is true that some people that find their way to center stage in the sanctuary are there due to egos, I would contend that most, like Davo, and (I hope) like me, are simply there to serve, worship, and help others have an uplifting encounter.

To those who have responded so far who have indicated that their luck of the draw resulted in one of these exceptions: I'm really sorry that happened. As a Christian, it frustrates me when others who purport to be Christians do something to drive people away - especially when one of the missions of a contemporary praise band is to bring people in - not just to the church, but to the band as well.

I have played with similar egos to that in church bands, and on one memorable occasion the guy who was trying out as the church's worship leader (did not ultimately get the job) chose "The Heart Of Worship" for one of his trial service's songs. Unfortunately, I don't think this fellow ever actually read and contemplated the lyrics of the song. (To those who may be less familiar with worship music, the song is an apology to Jesus for concentrating too much on the presentation of worship music, as opposed to actually using it as a vessel for worship). I have had paying gigs for composers that were less stressful than the two practices and one service playing with him. The guy who eventually got the gig was a real down-to-earth fellow who made sure everyone was comfortable, having fun, and really facilitated a good musical experience.

Praise bands are still bands. People who play in these bands are still people. I remind myself of this constantly, and when I pick up my sticks in that setting, I consciously step away from most of my normal concerns about a performance and try to play more by feel and by intuition, listen and watch the others, and just make it powerful.
 
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