Although I have been in touch with Chris for a while now over the Net, we have yet to meet! I found his blog online and have been interested in his content ever since. He is also a drummer seeking the heartbeat of God in everything we do and sheds a bit of reality in areas where sometimes we brush over so lightly we never get to the root of it all.

Chris is 29 years old, married to Catherine and they have a lovely daughter called Elise. He has played drums since he was ten and in worship teams since he was 18. Chris says, “I have been given opportunities to play at both New Wine and Spring Harvest in the youth venues. I currently go to a church plant of Trinity Church in Cheltenham which is called St Paul’s. I am also writing and playing with Jamie Hill (lead singer of Quench).”

Biography
Chris has been drumming since he was ten and has played at various events such as the New Wine and Spring Harvest Christian conferences. He has worked with acclaimed worship leaders such as Gareth Robinson, Eoghan Heaslip and Neil Bennetts and in association with Neil he has contributed to recording projects such as the New Wine Acoustic Worship series.

Current Work
Chris is currently writing and playing with Jamie Hill - frontman of christian rock band Quench, but is available for other gigs/sessions. He is also involved in developing a worshipping community at St Pauls Church, Cheltenham.

Chris’ setup
Jalapeno Custom Drums 20″ Bass, 10 & 15″ Toms and 13×7″ Snare in Natural Satin

Sabian AA 20″ Rock Ride, 18″ Thin Crash, 16″ Medium Thin Crash, 13″ Hi-Hats & HH 10″ Splash
Wuhan 18″ China Cymbal

Premier 5000 Series Stands
Tama Powerglide Iron Cobra Pedal & 1st Chair Drum Throne
Protection Racket Drum Mat with Baskey mat markers.
Hardcase Cases.

“Nice!” [ Matt ]

So, I do what I always do when I connect with other Christian drummers… I ask them questions! So here we go:

What, for you, is the biggest challenge in drumming in the context of worship?

The biggest challenge in drumming in the context of congregational worship (surely all our drumming is worship?) is to play in a way that doesn’t take people’s eyes off God and put them onto the drummer. For me this means holding back, not being too busy or provocative and just playing to the song. Some of the best worship drumming is the most simple.

Playing with different musicians, how do you adapt your playing style or do they adapt to you?

Generally I adapt my playing to be what the person requires of me. When it’s an inexperienced worship leader or band that need someone to be solid and to keep time then I simplify my playing and focus on maintaining an even tempo. With more experienced players I think there’s a bit of give and take and you work together to produce something that you’re both happy with. To give an example I have done a lot of playing at various conferences with guest worship leaders. They will often ask for specific things and as someone who is there to serve I accept that role. Sometimes I will come back with an alternative solution if I think there’s a better way but if they still want it done their way then I will defer to them. More often than not they will be happy with what I bring to the table.

As a rule if you listen to what’s already there your playing will contribute and add to that rather than push something in a different direction. Exceptionally there are times when the drummer needs to radically assert themselves to completely transform what is being done. I suggest these times are few and far between and that the relationships between the drummer and the worship leader/band members must be strong in these cases.

If you’re practicing, what do you practice?

Is this a trick question? Being a new dad practice is hard to make time for but when I do…..

• Applied rudiments … i.e. how to apply rudiments to fills. My favourite being a four beat ruff starting on the & of 4 on my left hand and into 1 crashing with my right - sounds fantastic!
• Click Playing - immensely important to develop that inner metronome so you can be the timekeeper of any band.
• Styles - Jazz, Funk, Blues, Latin etc. Christian Worship doesn’t really encompass these but I find I can use little bits of these in my playing.
• Fill construction i.e how to break up a bar into different patterns. So often we need to work out how to make a whole bar or half a bar sound interesting or how to transition from A to B.

Some of the best worship drumming is the most simple.

What is your experience of Psalm Drummers?

I have nibbled round the edges of PD’s for a number of years. We started a group in Cheltenham for a while but due to time constraints of members it was hard to sustain and eventually died. I’ve had a couple of lessons with Terl in London which were inspirational but long days (I live in Cheltenham). More recently I’ve got to know a couple of the guys who were or are key members of PD’s. Calum Rees is a friend I’ve known for years after a week of playing percussion at New Wine whilst watching him on the kit next to me saying “How did he do that?”. A couple of years later I was lucky enough to be playing drums in the youth venue at New Wine with Jamie Hill and Psalm Drummers came in for an evening and played with us. It was such a blessing to be playing kit whilst these guys played alongside me - many of them much better kit players than me but so encouraging about my playing and about the worship in general. From their I’ve built good relationships with the Southampton crew who seem to be the core members and been invited to participate in bigger events - many of which I am unable to commit to unfortunately. I did attend the last PD’s national conference - where I crashed the Green Room (sorry Terl) because my friends were doing the cooking and let me have some food - plus all my mates were there!

Tell us more about your playing with Jamie Hill

Jamie is one of my best friends. We’ve been playing together for about five years now. He doesn’t remember but we met years before that at a gig when he was in Why? (remember them?). Anyway, me and Jamie are like a pair of comfortable socks - we just go together. My one recommendation to most drummers is build relationships with the people you play with. If you have a level of trust with those individuals then it makes a world of difference. Jamie freely admits that he doesn’t lead worship on his own, but that the drums do 50% of the leading with him. That’s because we trust each other so
much that he’ll allow me to spontaneously shape what’s happening - so I have the freedom to dynamically (and spiritually) shape what is happening. This can mean that I will bring a lively song into an intimate moment by reducing my volume and simplifying my playing or I can build something up and create energy. Jamie has overall control but generally he doesn’t block where I take things.

A couple of years back as an initiative of the youth congregation we were part of we ran what was termed the “School of Worship” which was a course run over six Saturdays (one a month) designed to equip young people with the skills to lead worship in their own churches practically and spiritually. We
had 60/70 young people coming from as far as Reading and Kent to attend every month. I lead the drums masterclass equipping youngsters in how to apply themselves to worship - which is actually a hard thing to convey. The result of the course being that we weren’t invited back to play at one event
because we’d equipped young people from that church to do it themselves! That for me is success in youth work - when you’ve worked yourself out of a job.

More recently Jamie and I with a couple of other guys have pulled together to explore what worship means for us as a group of individuals. We are meeting together, praying, seeking God and collectively writing songs. There seems to be a sense that mainstream contemporary worship is not real or gritty enough to reflect real life and the struggles with faith that all of us encounter day-to-day. I think you can see something of this in the stuff The David Crowder Band is producing at the moment. We don’t know where we will end up but we do sense God’s anointing on this venture. If it never amounts to anything with profile it doesn’t matter because we will have spent time investing in our relationship with God and each other. For me it’s just great to be in a group of musicians that know and trust each other and have desire to pursue God for all He’s worth. We still feel that God is calling us to equip churches to worship along the lines of our previous “School of Worship” so are open to leading training days for other churches. If you’re reading this and want to know more drop me a line.

Who is your favourite drummer and why?

So many to choose from and it changes every month. A copout I know but it’s true!

• Calum Rees
• Paul Evans
• Terl Bryant
• Neil Peart
• Vinnie Colaiuta
• John Bonham
• Ronnie Vanucci

To name but a few…

If you could have any kit or setup on the planet, what would it be?

My own with an extra 12″ tom in the middle and probably going to a heavier 18″ crash than I’ve got now. But these aren’t important. I’ve had to learn to be content - which is hard as drummers are naturally gear heads. My wife however is on board for the 12″ tom - God really does change people’s hearts!

How do you think God has used your gift of rhythm to affect other people?

I think that God has used my gifts to enable others to access him. If a drummer is truly bad then it’s painful to listen to and distracts from God. I thank God that I’m gifted enough not to get in the way and ask for forgiveness when I have.

What advice would you offer to drummers starting out in church worship teams?

There’s so much …

• don’t overstretch your playing in worship
• make time for practice
• build good relationships with your worship leader
• make sure your kit is set up ergonomically so you’re comfortable
• spend time on tuning
• invest in cymbals above drums - you can get a poor quality drum to sound alright but you can’t get a poor quality cymbal to sound any better
• Adhere to the gold dust principle - i.e. a drummers job is to keep time and play consistently adding fills like little bits of gold dust around the song

Preferred styles of playing?

Hate to say it but the MOR/pop-rock christianese. Just because its what’s there and what I’ve been playing for what seems forever.

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Thanks Chris for that really useful and insightful interview. I appreciated it very much and I am pretty sure the readers of the site will appreciate it too. It’s always great to hear from other drummers how they do what they do! Chris can be found online at www.chrisbeaumont.net