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Drummer-less! Your suggestions please
Our worship band usually consists of two guitars, keys, bass, congas and 3 vocalists. Our congist (is that a word?), who makes an enourmous phat beat, recently started working as a police officer. He either works Sunday mornings, or Saturday nights til 6am and is now rarely available to get to church.
I'm the only other drummer in our church, but am usually playing guitar and often leading worship. This has left a huge hole in our sound. Anyone got any drummerless suggestions for trying to keep the impact of the music up, or does anyone know any drummers who live near Worthing (12 miles from Brighton) who are looking for a church?
The main problem is that people have lost confidence because the band doesn't pump like it usually does, this means they hold back which could easily mean that they become self-aware and don't enter into worship as easily.
Your thoughts are much appreciated
Alex
I'm the only other drummer in our church, but am usually playing guitar and often leading worship. This has left a huge hole in our sound. Anyone got any drummerless suggestions for trying to keep the impact of the music up, or does anyone know any drummers who live near Worthing (12 miles from Brighton) who are looking for a church?
The main problem is that people have lost confidence because the band doesn't pump like it usually does, this means they hold back which could easily mean that they become self-aware and don't enter into worship as easily.
Your thoughts are much appreciated
Alex
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Levi Phillips on -
Just a quick word of encouragement here...
Last summer I went to Soul Survivor, really got into the worship and had an experience of my own, completely unique to me and really strengthened me in my faith. I had been asked to help out/play guitar on a youth weekend for 10-15s the week after, and I expected it to suck compared to the big, extravagant, beat-driven SS worship...I was used to leading every week with a drummer behind me in my own youth group.
IN FACT, even though it was me on electric and my older bro on acoustic, we had an awesome time, and played loads of upbeat songs. In every meeting the kids had a heart for worship, and we had a first-time experience of the Holy Spirit that weekend for some of them. In a sense, it was way better than SS, because it was so much more personal.
When you get down to that personal level, on a one-to-one with God, people will truly worship. Don't be afraid to 'step out of line' and go for it without the drums. You might be surprised at what happens.
Don't worry about the music, it's the heart of worship that God looks at :)
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Permalink Reply by Chelsea Fawcett on -
Mm I see the US isnt the only place churches are hurting for drummers, much less good drummers! I'm first and foremost with everyone else that you should pray for more drummers. In the meantime however, as you wait upon the Lord, I could share with you what my church has done in a similar situation. Our worship leader at our home church is a drummer primarily, but he switched to guitar so that he could lead. Lately he's had a hard time finding drummers, so on days when he cant find one, he leads from the dajembe. It can be annoying when you are used to a full set, but it works! Another thing that our WL does to keep the rhythm going is having the congregation clap along. Also, tambourine! Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Teresa on -
Our worship group has an electronic drummer called BOSS DR880,our worship leader is primarily a guitarist, but he also operates the drum machine via foot pedals, he already has the drum patterns set in place for each song so it's just a case of clicking through the patterns with the pedals.............. It works really well and you have the added advantage of being able to turn the drummer down when he gets too loud! ;-)
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Permalink Reply by Wulf Forrester-Barker on -
How do you manage with keeping in time with the drum machine? A lot of musicians struggle to play along to a click or other fixed reference point (and so congregations find it even harder). Does the BOSS unit have some mechanism for adjusting the tempo while keeping the beat?
Wulf
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Permalink Reply by Teresa on
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To be honest keeping in time with the Drum machine had never been a problem.
I don't know much about the BOSS unit, you'd have to check the specs to find out the details of what it is capable of,but I personally have sung with two worship groups in our Church that have both used Drum Machines and neither of the Worship leaders or other team members or indeed the congregation have ever had a problem keeping in time with the machine.
We also have other groups that use "real" drummers but as the groups function as seperate groups for the majority of the time, we only have a real drummer occasionally.
I am so used to singing to the beat of the machine that I really notice the inconsistancies of live drummers when we use them.
They're a great way of getting round a drummer shortage problem, like most things I am reliably informed, they just require practice.
Teresa
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Permalink Reply by Julian W on -
I think you've got some helpful comments already, so I'll just add a couple of thoughts.
A few have suggested leading from the drums/djembe etc. That could be good if you can get your head round singing and leading at the same time as playing drum(s)! I think that could be quite difficult. But if you try it, I suggest you stick to the congas (in my opinion they tend to fit better with the kind of music we usually do in the west, unless you have several different kinds of drums all together) and have a stand for them, so you play and lead standing up. Otherwise people won't be able to see you, which will make it harder to lead, as you won't be able to give the visual clues which help people to follow and to know what's happening.
You could try using the instruments you have in a more rhythmic way. It might take a bit of work initially, but make sure the first beat of the bar and the back beats are appropriately emphasised, and that everyone is playing in the same groove. The keyboard could do rhythmic chords at least some of the time, e.g. left hand plays on the the first beat of the bar and right hand on the back beat. (In fact you'd probably want to fill it out a bit more than that.) You've got two guitars, which can give quite a lot of rhythm, so the guitarists can play in a more strongly rhythmic way. And the bass can emphasise the groove very well if the bassist knows how to and is disciplined in doing so. And if he/she doesn't know how/isn't disciplined in emphasising the groove, now would be a very good time to learn!
Another thing that might be worth considering: you have 3 vocalists. Does that include you when you're leading? If not, that would make 4 in total, which is usually too many. Vocals are the least rhythmic 'instrument' in your band, and too many of them won't help in the quest for more sense of beat etc. If the 3 does include you, are the other two singing different things to each other, i.e. is at least one of them singing harmonies? Having a man (you?) and a woman singing the tune together and another woman (or man) singing harmonies can work well, but having two women or two men singing the tune together is not usually so effective. 3 vocalists singing tune + two different harmonies would probably be fine. So, depending on your situation, it may be worth considering thinning out the vocals.
All that won't be the same as a drummer, but should help you get a more rhythmic effect (if you aren't doing those things already).
Just one other thought, tackling things from another angle. You could adapt the musical style in which you do some of your songs, choosing styles which fit the current make-up of the band, or even choose some different songs which you can do better justice to at the moment. Also, songs which have plenty of their own forward energy in the tune (not just in the instrumental accompaniment) could help you. For example, some not-quite-so-recent songs might help you there. The congregation may need a little encouragement to adapt, but in these days of congregations from mixed backgrounds, being able to worship God in different musical styles is a bonus and a sign of maturity, so theremay be an opportunity here for the congregation to grow, with a little encouragement.
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Permalink Reply by David Alford on -
How about a drum machine - or keys with drum machine built in. I play keys and recently moved to a church without a band - I'm 'it' now. I use the drums in my old Yamaha PSR8000. Nowhere near a live drummer but a bit better than a tambourine.
Starting and stopping can be problematic, especially if e.g. you want to bring in drums after the first verse.
Here's a few hints -
PSR8000 has an intro button which gives a gentler lead in.
Stopping during the last line with a break works better than a dead stop.
To start without drums and bring them in later I check the beat LED, get that in my head then lead of with that speed. Bring the drums in at a natural break e.g. after the last beat of the verse, with intro or break buttons - allows a natural speed adjustment (or a frantic drum machine adjustment)
I've built up a song index with key and drum setting which saves time setting up. I also store the settings for each song in the play list in censecutive memory locations so that a single key sets the machine up for the next song.
Hope this helps a bit - Shalom - David
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Permalink Reply by Paul Kent on -
having recently been to Uganda.. their solution is a Casio keyboard churning out the beats. Phat like!
you could always use some sort of triggered beats.. Obviously a little tricky to start with. But it quickly becomes easier. Ableton Live perhaps?
or beat box it?
or go unplugged,
or hire a drummer? use it as a way to give a local musician practise and potentially bring him into the kingdom. I kid you not! A BIG church in London hires in a pro drummer for all their live events, the one they prefer to use isn't a christian and they have been using him and praying for him for over 10 years.. One day.... one day...
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