Physical and spiritual aspects of drumming in a worship team

Feb 20th, 2007 | By Matt | Category: Drum Articles

Here is an excerpt from My Drum Workshop (dating back to November 2000). Here I look at the physical and spiritual aspects of drumming in a worship team in your church.

Related posts that you may find interesting after reading the excerpt:

The PDF and information is located here ->

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Spiritual aspects of drumming in worship

Apart from the physical and practical elements of drumming, which I will address later, there are many spiritual aspects to drumming in a worship team. A lot of drummers ignore this side and are happy to churn out their 4/4’s and 3/4’s and then go home thinking, "Hardly made any mistakes, yeah!"

Based on my rather steep, although slow, learning curve of experience, here are my thoughts on the spiritual element in worship drumming.

Worship
Expression, creativity and skill all blend into the artist’s musical ‘painting’. Creating a form of worship to God that is pure and beautiful and straight from your heart.

The drums can be power, breaking down strongholds. OR they can be a stream, gently carrying the music and ministering to hearts.

You should worship when playing your instrument. Pray, focus, play.

Warfare
Although previously mentioned, I will state again that the drums can be used very powerfully in the area of spiritual warfare. You might be led to play just on the toms or just the cymbals, or just one percussion instrument but in the spiritual realm, great things are happening! Always be prepared to build up/attack when you need to. More of this stuff is covered in the practical section.

Sensitivity
The KEY is being sensitive to the music, the other musicians, the worship leader and MOST importantly - the Holy Spirit. You must be able to follow the "flow" of the worship. Where is it going? Are things getting louder or softer? What is the worship leader doing? Is he/she trying to communicate with you?
Constantly be aware that, in worship, where the Holy Spirit is present, God will be wanting to do things . If you are not sensitive to this, things might not work out as well as you thought and you will have ruined a potentially life-changing opportunity by not being spiritually sensitive.

Annointing
This is a powerful thing which I believe every drummer must always have. You can play till you’re blue in the face, but if God is not in it….it means nothing and has no effect whatsoever!

What is annointing? It is when God enables you, touches you, increases your faith and awareness of His Holy Spirit and provides you with power for the task at hand.

God will equip you for the task, no matter how little or much skill you have. The annointing is a powerful, awesome and beautiful thing that one should desire every time one plays. Often, I will feel very aware of where the music is going and my ’spiritual ears’ will be tuned in to where God is taking us and I can pick up from there and play.

There is nothing like that feeling I get inside of me sometimes that says, "Just PLAY MAN!!" - It is truly beautiful and beyond words. Playing the cymbals, only the cymbals, one Sunday morning, reduced me to tears as God just touched me and I felt the incredible presence of the Holy Spirit.

Obedience
If the worship leader says, "Stop." it means…well…stop!

Remember, you are under the authority of the worship leader, who is under the authority of the pastor. It is important that you obey and discipline yourself in areas where you might get carried away and be tempted to do your own thing.

Character
This is a key aspect of a drummer in a worship team, and for anyone in any situation really. Character involves attitude, behaviour, honourable motives and integrity of heart. How does one develop his/her character? Reading the Word, prayer, practising with a team and asking the right questions. What questions?

Am I making a worthwhile contribution to this team?
Is the music pleasant to listen to or am I just making a noise?
Am I enhancing or distracting?

Your character develops as you play more and learn more. Watch other drummers, watch the worship leaders, watch the other musicians and see what they do on and off stage.

Prayer
Ah, one of the most important things really! Prayer helps you focus, it allows God to speak to you and also allows you to develop your spiritual side of life - which I think is rather important!

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Physical/Practical aspects of drumming in worship

Being a big, loud instrument with many more mics than anyone else in the band, there are going to be plenty of practical elements in drumming with a worship team.

These will link up closely with the spiritual elements too, so forgive me if I repeat myself. Most of the practical stuff I will talk about and go through with you in this workshop by means of practical demonstrations. These are just some notes that are in my head right now.

Sensitivity

Volume
This one gets me every time! Somehow, drums just seem to get louder. I don’t know why, it’s just one of those ‘mysteries of the world’ things!

But, you as the drummer, do have some control over that you know! The drums can be loud so just be aware of that and be sensitive to other’s ears!

You can use volume to your advantage though. Drums sound different at different volumes, so you can use those different sounds to build up or break down songs or add that ’something special’ to the flavour of the music!

I would constantly be told to play softer. But I don’t believe it’s about playing softer. It’s about playing wiser - quieter perhaps but not softer to the point where you drop your sticks because you’re holding them too lightly. Just remember the ‘attitude’ thing though. If you are asked to play softer by more than one person, excluding the worship leader, then take the hint and play softer!

Rhythm/Timing
A truly ‘gifted’ drummer will be able to play a 5/4 beat in a 4/4 song! Don’t let this happen to you!

If you do not practice the song the way it is meant to be played, you cannot possibly be helping any of the other musicians in the team. The team rely on the drummer for the timing and rhythm of the song. If you do not know the timing or the rhythm, what good is that?

Drummers who don’t practice and who do not have the experience or skill to stay in time could be holding back the worship leader and the rest of the team and thereby affect the rest of the church’s worship experience for that morning/evening. It is SO important to be able to stay in time, keep that tempo constant (don’t worry, I still battle!).

Practice basic beats which will give you a framework upon which to improvise. I have heard drummers play in a team who haven’t even mastered a basic 4/4 beat! Heck, I only knew two beats when I started playing in a worship team but at least I could play them well. PRACTICE!

Oh, some people say : "Use a metronome.". I admit it’s good but I never have…well, that explains a lot really!

Shells and tuning
Learn how to tune your drumkit. There is nothing worse than trying to sing a song and the drummer hits what he thinks is a tom-tom but it sounds like someone’s car tire outside just burst. OR there is this high-pitched, long echoing sound hanging in the air from an ill-tuned tom.

A well-tuned kit will make the listening experience much more pleasurable to the congregation and much more enjoyable for you too!

Your shells should not be angled too much so that striking the drum causes unnecessary vibration and you damage your wrists. I will show you what I mean in a practical demonstration.

Set-up of the Kit
Rule number 1: Make sure you are comfortable!
Easy!

Set up the kit in such a way that you can easily reach any part of it with minimal exertion. Your seat should be a comfortable height, with your legs parallel with the ground, or slightly lower. Ultimately, you shouldn’t have to strain to reach things or physically drain yourself playing.

And who said drummers were lazy? Hey, we gotta pack and carry all that stuff, ok?

Sticks
I encourage drummers to use different kinds of sticks and other toys. I mean, why not?

Thicker sticks give a much different sound than thinner ones. Plastic tipped, wooden tipped and ‘flares’ all contribute to a much more diverse sound and a uniqueness for each song.

Sometimes, I use certain sticks for certain songs, as they bring out more ‘flavour’ in the song. It is up to the drummer to decide what sounds best and what he/she is comfortable with playing. I think you should experiment as much possible with different sticks and tools, especially cymbal mallets, they’re my favourite!

Also, use the right sticks for the job. If you’re playing a sweet, gentle song with sticks the size of tree trunks, I don’t think the ‘gentleness’ is going to be as well conveyed by the thudding, crashing and booming from your trees.

Cymbals
Cymbals are beautiful things! You can crash, ride, ping or slide! Sounds like fun hey!?!!

Strike cymbals correctly
Be aware of the various sounds of cymbals and how to use them
Use cymbals to express yourself!
Don’t ‘over-use’ the cymbals!

Toms
The ‘tom-toms’ are powerful and are not just reserved for fills you know! A drummer can say a lot by the way he/she plays them.

Familiarise yourself with the sound of the drums
Try tuning them differently
Practice moving from one drum to the next smoothly and comfortably
Play different rhythms and see what you can come up with
PRACTICE FILLS..and practice different fills too (i.e. don’t keep using the same fill for every song, people hear it!)

Monitors and sound
It is very important that the drummer has the right sound coming through his/her monitor when playing. The reason for this is that if you cannot hear the worship leader and the rest of the band, what is to stop you from playing out of time, playing too softly or loudly or just playing really badly because you cannot hear anything?

Be careful that you get the right mix the first time so that you don’t have to play louder because the monitors are too loud or softer because you can’t hear. I think a good mix should have the worship leader’s vocals, nice and clear, the worship leader’s instrument just below that and then a bit of the other instruments in the team so that you can get a general feel of the whole group in your monitor. Make sure that the other instruments, including vocals, do not drown out the leader.

Don’t be shy in asking for changes to your monitor sound. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive!

PS: Watch the volume!

Attitude
Don’t show off! It’s great to have other guys watching you to see how you play but the moment you try and do something to impress human eyes, God lets go and you’re on your own. And that’s not always the greatest place to be! Watch your attitude, especially younger drummers…

Playing with a team
The keyword there is "team". It’s not just you, even though you might be the glue that holds everything together (hehe..okay, so we like to think that sometimes!), the whole thing only works when everyone is working together towards a common goal.

The worship team is a unit, you are an important part of the whole.
The worship leader and you have a mutually beneficial relationship. The drummer must support the leader at all times. You are relying on him/her for direction and he/she is relying on you for support. You both have to support and carry each other.
Don’t lag behind everyone. "Push" the beat ever so slightly, you will find that the team follows the stronger beat.
Be aware of other musicians and instruments in the team. If there are other percussion instruments playing a certain rhythm, don’t go and play the same rhythm on your drums! You’re just competing and making a noise! This goes for percussionists too - an often-made mistake!
Keep eye contact with the worship leader.
Learn to recognise individual styles in worship leading eg. you should know if the leader wants to go back to a verse or repeat a chorus or end the song, get louder, softer etc..
Learn when to play…and when not to play! — VERY important!
You’re going to make mistakes…get over them and carry on.
Submit to authority
Admit if you’re in the wrong
Stand up if you’re right, but remember your attitude!