Although recorded some time ago, this is  me messing about on the kit. At the time I thought it was terrible but now it doesn’t seem too bad to share with others. It’s to show you how I play with rubber mats on the kit to make as little noise as possible. Not the ideal but helps with stick control and dynamics too. Enjoy the video.

The new year is now upon us and The Christian Drummer web site is in its third year now. So much has changed since I started the site. Every year, I take it up a notch and do something else with it for the sake of encouraging and building up Christian drummers worldwide. So this year, I got some new ideas.

Of course, these are just ideas and whether they will be implemented or not is another story. But here they are off the top of my head and in no particular order:

• Better t-shirts with more exposure on the site
• Drum tabs to popular worship songs
• Better integration with friend sites like ‘Tobosari Crestini’ and ‘Drummer For Christ’ and ‘Drummers for Jesus’
• More resources for Christian drummers in the form of books and videos
• Video clips from myself
• More interviews with drummers from around the world, not just famous ones!

These are dependent on time permitting and if anyone else is happy to be a part of the site in the form of contributing articles or other resources too. I am always looking for new ideas and contributors to the site.

So, friends and drummers worldwide, welcome to 2009!

Matt

Hey, this is the sound clip from my warming up and sound check from the Battle of the Bands at JCC in November 2008. Just messing about really (in other words, not very tight or professional!) but I really enjoyed it! Sound changes after 2 mins after second mic is added to catch bass tones.

[audio:Matt-Djembe-Warmup.mp3]

I enjoyed a few minutes of getting to show off a little bit of what the djembe can do at a Battle of the Bands contest at Jubilee Community Church on Saturday evening. It was a great evening and I am sure all enjoyed it. Peter Meade was taking photos and graciously gave me a copy of some pics he took of me warming up and performing. I did a djembe solo and a little bit of crowd vocal drumming facilitation. The photos are available on my Facebook page.

Photos are © 2008. Peter Meade Photography.
You can view Peter’s website here >> http://www.petermeadephotography.co.uk