"I Am A Member Of The Body Of Christ..."

Before I was a drummer, a Pastor or a worship leader, I was a member of the body of Christ. This statement is purposely stated incorrectly for effect. If you are a person who serves on the worship team and this statement seems just fine, then it helps to illustrate my point further. I am a member of the body of Christ and therefore I serve. Seems like there is only a semantic difference, but there truly is a dangerous undercurrent for all church personnel. It is the temptation to boil down my involvement to what it is that I am doing, and consequently shun the other very important functions of the local fellowship.

What do I mean? It is tempting to come in and "do my job" or "put in my time." Many churches will accept such service and even welcome it, just so long as the program is served. However, this is not what the Lord wants for His children. He wants us to be intimately connected to the church we serve and the people who make up the rest of the body. Neglecting such things reflect poorly upon us and place us in great spiritual trouble.

It's subtle, but soon, we mark our Christianity by the services that we provide, rather than our deep heart felt commitment to the Lord. As we tune out Bible Studies, and make fellowship an option, we lose our spiritual edge. Soon, our attitudes are effected and the people we are called to serve become annoyances.

Not only is this the case, but we are robbed of the opportunity to operate in areas of giftedness that we may not otherwise have known. We lose out on being a meaningful friend, or a helpful counselor. Other areas of ministry might also be affected.

And what about the example that others see. "Oh, he just comes to church when he's playing..."

I don't intend this to be a guilt trip. Not at all! I have had to call myself on the carpet regarding this issue as well. God is calling us to serve His body, as musicians, but also as counselors, prayer warriors and encouragers.

With that in mind, look for opportunities to minister away from your instrument. The Youth always need people. Ushers could use a hand once in a while. See if they could use a hand in the nursery...ok, maybe you don't want to go that direction. There are many options and chances are, you might already have a direction. At the very least, stick yourself in the pew every week and ask God to direct you to other non-musical ministry. I know that He will answer that prayer.

I pray that you won't miss out.

Blessings,
Frank

Pet Peeves!

Somewhere between Moreno Valley and Hemet, I came upon an interesting set of thoughts. I was listening to the morning’s tunes that I was about to play, readying myself for the worship experience. The 2nd song of the set was going to be somewhat new for the congregation I was going to serve. And without saying the name of the artist or the tune, I will comment that this song’s drummer played the most unimaginative, boring part I had heard in a long time. It was what the pros call the “Money Beat.” The “Money Beat” is the first beat that every drummer learns, kick on 1 & 3, snare on 2 & 4, 8th notes on the hi-hat. As I was listening, the simplicity just bugged me, as I thought, “Why not just let the machine do the work?” There was no creativity, no passion, just pure time.

Now that being said, who knows why this took place. There may be a perfectly valid reason and we’ll leave it at that. Suffice it to say here, the end result was a drum beat worth forgetting.

Then I came to the very next song. This song was a real groove tune, with an R & B feel to it. Unlike the rock tune that had come before, it was very creative. It began in the first verse with a classic sidestick/hi-hat groove. I enjoyed the song as it went into the chorus with a nice snare transition. Then, it got thoroughly weird. The next verse featured a snare off/tom-tom combination. All of a sudden I was thrown and was listening to the drummer’s creativity. His patterns were very random and it seemed like he was making things up as he went along. Making matters worse, he had a third, completely different interpretation of the 3rd verse which was even more wild and out than the 2nd verse!

Again, let’s assume someone told him to approach each verse differently. At that point, the truly tasteless approach to the song falls on that leader.

Alright, next song. Classic 6/8 ballad. Probably the same drummer and sort of the same problem. Accept this time, the only thing that changes is the bass drum pattern. Every verse and chorus had a different bass drum pattern, while everything stayed the same on top.

Now, before I move on, I realize that I sound like the world’s most harsh critic and in this moment and with these examples, it’s likely that I am! It’s just that these three scenarios represent my three pet peeves. Lack of imagination, lack of stability and lack of cohesion.

First, each drum part that we are creating must be creative. It must reach out from time, or machine like quality to being musical. Otherwise, we are just machines! Let’s say it’s a 4 on the floor pattern. One can still spice it up by working on the hi-hats and adding ghost notes on the snare drum. There are a million, creative ways to approach even the most elemental patterns.

Second, when creating a part, that part should be the part for each of the verses, each of the choruses and every instrumental break in between. This is not just good drumming. It’s a service to the people you are playing with, and a service to the congregation you are playing in front of. Stability of playing helps the musicians create their parts and helps the audience “settle in” for the given song.

Finally, cohesive bass drum work is key to settling into the groove. Find a pattern that works and stick to it. Marry it! Your bass player will thank you and rhythm partners, like the rhythm guitarist and pianist, will be able to do their work of filling around the empty spaces that your pattern on the kick creates. All of a sudden, the kick just becomes one of the rhythmic threads which make up the dominant pulse of the tune.

Hope this helps.

Blessings,
Frank

Google Beta Video Link Of The Week

I'm still trying to get my Blogger Beta blogs a video feed, either through Youtube or Google's Video. Neither will accept my username and password. So paste and enjoy. This drum battle is EPIC!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-238233054317875548&q=Dave+Weckl&hl=en

Enjoy!

Blessings,
Frank

Ah, Paradiddles!

When I think about what really made the difference in my playing over the last 6 or 7 years, I have to point to paradiddles. Paradiddles are a combination stroke, singles and doubles. The sticking, if you are not familiar is R L R R L R L L. It’s a 16th note subdivision, so it can easily be counted in the usual “1 e an a” method. Now, not wanting to take credit where it is not due, I learned a very basic exercise from the Dave Weckl video “Back To Basics.” After you learn the stroke, break it up over your snare and hi-hat. The kick will be on the 1 and the 3.

What is real important is that you differentiate, radically at first, the accented stroke and the unaccented stroke. This will make a huge difference physically in how you approach the accented and unaccented notes. You will be thankful for it later.

Now, what will you will hear will shock you at first. Things will sort of come in and out and it will sound really unbalanced at first. Of course, start slow and you will begin to feel the way that it is supposed to sound.

Doing this exercise accomplished three things for me: 1) It gave me a better sense of time, 2) It radically helped my ghost notes and 3) It made my groove solid and “feel” complete. Over time, I started to learn the rest of the paradiddle family, ie. double paradiddles, paradiddle diddles and flamadiddles. Adding these to my “bag of tricks” really helped to stimulate my playing.

Hope this helps.

Blessings,
Frank