(drumming) – This is Stephen Taylor, and I wanna talk to you
about drumming in church. Now this is something that
thousands of drummers do around the world every week. For some of you, like me,
this is your first gig. This is your first opportunity
to play in front of people. I've been playing in churches since I first picked
up the sticks. I grew up a pastor's son, and the first weekend
I got my drum set, I played four times in churches. I played a youth retreat, I played two services, I
played all, a men's event, like I was playing in church
from the time I started, so this is something that I
have a lot of experience in, and a lot of you have to
do this on a weekly basis. Now, some churches choose
to hire their musicians, so some of you who may say
I'll never play in a church, may one day get a call, and you may have to
go play in a church that you're not familiar with.
Maybe you don't
share the same faith. So we need to know
some guidelines for playing in that environment. Now the first one, and to
me this is the golden rule of playing in a church
or a house or worship if we wanna make this a
more global type of a term, you have to realize
that it's not about you. It is not about the drummers. It's not about you
coming and imposing what you think should
happen in the music, okay? You need to understand that, and if we understand
that from the front, then it makes everything
else afterwards a lot easier.
Have a good attitude. It's not about you. Be conducive to the environment. It's not about you. It's about serving what's
going on in the music. Really it's always
about that with music. Now the second thing that
you have to understand whenever you play in an
environment like this is it's a group event, okay? So this is not like
your band just doing some solo stuff. This is a group event. Many churches, people come,
and it's a place of worship. They want to interact with
the songs that are happening, whether they be
traditional hymns, whether it be a full orchestra, whatever the setting may be, you will oftentimes have
people interacting with you.
And knowing that
it's a group event, you have to play a
little bit different. So you've got Joe the mechanic
that he works a nine to five, and he works on cars, and when
it comes to working on cars, man, he is killer. But when it comes to
something as simple as finding the beat to a
song, eh, not so good. So we have to realize that, and we have to understand
that that is going to kind of direct how we actually
play in that environment. Now the third thing I would
say is watch your fills. Now I'm not telling
you you can't do fills. It's music, we need to
add what needs to be added in the times that it
needs to be added, but what I'm talking about
is we need to make sure that we're playing
the proper fills in the proper places. So in other words, I don't
need to play a leading fill in the middle of a verse because again, this
goes back to the first, or the second, rule that we had, and that is, it's a group event.
If I play a leading fill, then those people sitting
there are gonna think, oh, that means we're
going to the chorus, and so maybe they'll start, I've actually
watched this happen, and I play a fill
in the wrong place, and people start
singing the next section when we haven't
really moved, okay? So you have to understand,
what is a leading fill? Well, something like this. So if I'm playing a
groove, (drumming) that is what is
called a leading fill. It leads the listener's
ear to the next section. It also ques the band that
we're making a big movement. So I'm not gonna do that in
the middle of a verse, okay? It doesn't really sound good
to go, (drumming) generally, that means that
we're going somewhere else. It's a bigger fill
for a bigger movement. Now what would be
an acceptable fill for maybe in the
middle of a verse? Something like this, it's
what I call like a hiccup, or an interruption.
(drumming) It's not a big enough fill that it's gonna interrupt
the flow of the music, but it also gives
a little variation to what's been going on.
Again, it's not that
we can't play fills, it's that we just need to
understand where they're going and put them in
their proper places. So the fourth thing is, we
are responsible for the time. You are responsible
for the time, and I know a lotta people go, oh, everybody's
responsible for the time. Yeah, but again, this goes
back to that rule number one, it's not about you,
and rule number two, this is a group event. When it's a group event, and every group needs
a leader, don't they? And you're like, well, that's
what the song leader's for, yeah, true, he's supposed to
lead the people with the words, but who's gonna lead the rhythm? That's your job. So we have to make sure that
everybody stays together, and that can sometimes
be a challenging job because sometimes you
have people across stage who are getting some
slapback from other people that are singing in
the congregation.
So I'm going to make sure
that everybody is together and that the congregation
is following us. And if I notice that a singer, you've had this happen to you, all of a sudden Suzy,
she's such a sweet lady, and all of a sudden, she
just starts draggin', she's really a weight, and
she's holding us down. You don't need to
sit there and go, aw, man, kinda wish she'd sing, sometimes she's getting
slapback from those walls, and she can't hear
that she's dragging. So it's your job,
because remember, it's not about you, and you're
responsible for the time, and this is a group event, it is your job to help
her out a little bit.
So especially on softer songs that maybe doesn't have
a lot of percussion, I'm gonna sneak in there, and I'm gonna maybe play
a hi-hat real softly, maybe I'll come in
with the brushes and give her some
type of rhythm. Maybe I'll come
in with a shaker, but I'm gonna make sure
that we all stay together because if I don't,
then guess what, it's a plane crash, and
we're all dead, not just her.
And you can't go,
well, it was her fault because remember,
it's not about you. See all these go together. We have to understand that
playing in these places is just a little bit different
than playing in other places. So the fifth one that I
would like to bring up is dynamics, dynamics, dynamics. All too often, I've
been in a service, or I've gone to visit a church, and many times they will
put you in the aquarium, they'll put you in the box, they could put plexiglass
all around you.
They do that so they
can isolate the sound, and they do that because
sometimes they have a drummer that can't control their volume. So you have to realize
the environment you're in. If I have a singer
standing right in front me, and I don't have any
drum cage, guess what? Their mic's gonna pick
up some of my drums. I have to understand
the acoustics of the environment I'm in. So if we're in a smaller room, I'm not gonna sit there
and play, (heavy drumming) I'm gonna realize that oh
yeah, we're in a smaller room, I should maybe, (light drumming) and sometimes we actually have
to make further adjustments. Sometimes we have to
play with special sticks. Sometimes they'll actually
ask you to play percussion instead of playing a drum set. Maybe sometimes with brushes. Again, it's not about
you, it's a group event.
It's making sure that the group
is having a community event. They're having a
community time together, and you're helping
facilitate that, okay? So if you can remember
it's not about you, this is a group event, you need to be careful where
you're putting your fills and what fills you're playing, you need to remember that
you're responsible for the time, and you also need to
remember your dynamics. If you can do those five things, man, you're gonna go
a long way in playing in that environment
and really fitting in and being a benefit to the gig. Again, I'm Stephen Taylor, I'm a satellite
teacher here at Drumeo. I also run my own
YouTube channel and my own website
where I do lessons. You can check out all
those links below. Hopefully these tips
have helped you.
(upbeat music).
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