Drums and Worship

It's no secret that within the realm of contemporary music - and by extension, contemporary worship music - the drums very often drive the song.  The drummer can keep the whole band locked in a solid groove, but he/she can also take control of a song (and the sound) in a not so good way as well.  At Living Word we are blessed to have drummers who really strive to play according to the needs of the song and the worship leader, and are solid at keeping us locked into the click.  We've done things acoustically to help focus the drums into the microphones and make tweaks in our kit setup and equipment, and all of these things have resulted in a sonic experience that supports the vision of our worship gatherings - that people enjoy and experience God's presence.

Once in awhile I'll come across another blog that says something worth repeating to a different audience.  Church on the Move, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has a great blog that focuses on a number of topics.  One of their bloggers, Andrew Stone, a drummer who now serves as production manager at COTM, recently wrote about the importance of playing of drummers being able to "self-mix".  The best drummers understand how to play in such a way as to provide the best balance into the microphone pick-ups.  He discusses what he calls the "pyramid" approach to playing the kit:

Look at the drum kit overall as a pyramid: anything located near the bottom of the pyramid needs to be played harder than the things located at the top. So for most standard drum setups these days, the kick can be played the loudest, then the floor tom, then the snare, hat, and rack tom, with cymbals being played the lightest. This has been a good rule of thumb for me for many years and works well both onstage and in a studio setting. Pyramid schemes aren’t all bad.

Although I'm definitely not a drummer I've played with them long enough to see the wisdom in what Stone is saying.  Let's keep growing forward!