Let me tell you some things about your church drum kit...
A page about church and a companion to nothing could be dumber
Well, not all of them will apply to you. Most congregations suffer from some but not all of them. All that I have seen suffer at least one! So just apply those you find helpful.
In no particular order.
The hardware screws are too tight
The kit consists of the drums, the cymbals and the stands.
The most important part is the stands. The best drum or cymbal hit badly sounds bad. But the worst drum or cymbal hit well sounds OK. Percussion is like that!
So the stands which put the instruments in the positions and at the angles that enable the drummer to hit them properly are the most important parts of the kit.
And this is reflected in the differences between toy, beginner, student and professional drum kits. There's a lot more difference between the quality and functionality of the stands than the drums. (The cymbals are generally sold separately except for the very cheapest kits. And that is cheapest in the worst sense,)
These cheap stands are the ones most easily damaged by overtightening. Screwthreads will be stripped and become impossible to tighten properly, and things will slip as a result. Tomtom arms will be dented... maybe not a bad thing if the screwthreads are stripped, it may stop the slipping to some extent. But eventually the thread will either jam solid or let go completely.
The formula for any stand is, as tight as is needed and no tighter. This is repeated a couple of times on this page because it's important.
I think every beginner overtightens the screws. Particularly in churches but not just there.
The hi-hat is incorrectly assembled
The bit that holds the top cymbal is the clutch.
Most hi-hat stands have a clutch with three threaded nuts, all of them knurled... that is, grooved so you can grip it. Two thin ones and one thicker one. This was the original Gene Krupa design and is still the most common.
And every beginner drummer seems to have a different idea of how to assemble it! But there is only one correct way.
Here's how it should look (assuming you have this type). The first (leftmost) photo is of the clutch on the stand, but without the cymbal. The second is of it stripped down but in the order it goes back together. And the third is the way it should look from on top with the cymbal mounted but not yet on the stand.
(And yes, those photos are from Wikimedia Commons, and yes they are used by permission. Mine. I took them.)
If any of those bits are missing, you probably need a new clutch. They are readily available online, but WARNING: The hole through the middle of it needs to be the right size for the shaft of your hi-hat stand. They aren't all the same size! The wrong size may not fit at all, or it may put the cymbal off-centre.
The one of those three nuts that is thicker than the others is not threaded all the way through. That one goes on to the clutch last, obviously! It must be at the bottom. We will come to it. The other two are identical, but one goes on one way up, the other the opposite way. We will come to that.
So let us now go through the assembly process.
The first thing to go onto the clutch is one of those two thin ones. They have a knurled part of greater diameter than the rest. For this first one, that larger diameter knurled bit goes on first. Wind it a good way up the clutch thread, out of the way for now.
Then the second one goes on, the other way up, so the smaller diameter bits of the two are closest together, and you can easily tighten them against each other when the time comes. Wind it up near the first one but not quite touching.
Next comes the upper felt washer, then the top cymbal, then the second felt. These two felts will be the same size.
Last of all comes the bottom nut. It only goes on one way. Tighten it up against the bottom of the clutch, tight enough not to come loose but no tighter. Beginners tend to make everything as tight as their strength allows. Many accomplished drummers never learn any better. But it is wrong and counterproductive, see above.
Now we have the clutch assembled, we can do the adjustment. Tighten the lower of the two thin nuts against the felt below it. This adjusts the sound of the cymbal. Too tight will choke it, too loose will make it too washy. This is part of tuning the kit. When you have it at the tension you want, then use both hands to tighten the second one against it. This locks it. Again, tight enough not to come loose and no tighter.
Now mount it on the stand and see how it sounds. You can then adjust the tension if needed without dismounting the cymbal. An experienced drummer working with cymbals they know will not normally need to do this, but if it doesn't sound right, fix it! Just back the upper nut off a little to unlock the one it's against, then adjust that lower one tighter or looser as you see fit, and test it. When you're happy with the sound, tighten the upper nut down again to lock the lower one.
And we are done! Assembled in this way you or any other drummer can easily adjust the upper cymbal tension while seated at the kit. And not otherwise.
That drum booth is hindering both the worship and the drumming
Your drummer should be part of the band and the congregation.
Drum booths are cool except for two things.
- They encourage bad drumming.
- They lead to poorer worship.
Is there really such as poor worship? I didn't say poor. I said poorer. And what is good enough for God?
But first things first. The easiest way to play the drums is metzo forte. In fact playing pianissimo requires eight times the energy of mf.
That's what I said. If you are playing correctly, you will consume eight times the blood sugar and oxygen playing the same passage ppp as you would mf.
It's all about control. The sticks do most of the work.
Your good drummer doesn't need a drum booth. And your bad drummer should learn to play without one, in their interest and yours. Shut them up in a cage like a gorilla and they will play like a gorilla. Not good.
There is one proviso. If you're making a high quality recording, you need a screen between the drummer and the vocal mikes. But just a screen. Not a full booth. See here for an example of good professional use of such a screen.
Your drummer is an important part of the worship leadership team. They control the tempo and feel. (But they should not be the one setting it. More on that below.) To do that well they need to be part of the band, and part of the congregation. They're not just there for decoration.
Of course there's another option: Electronic drums of some sort need no booth. That can be a prayerful and wise decision, but I preach caution. Plastic drums do tend to sound like plastic drums, in my experience. It doesn't need to be so but it takes both skill and good gear to match the sounds to the venue and the music. We want genuine worship. That is generally best led by genuine drums, both for their sound and their appearance and the experience they give the player, which they will reflect in their playing. But it also depends a bit on your style of music, and your players. For techno they are excellent, and they do make a beginner more controllable and perhaps more useful provided that they are comfortable with that.
The skins need replacing
Particularly the bottom ones on the tomtoms (if they have bottom heads).
Tomtoms should thunder. The only way to make them do this is to have an unplayed head on the bottom. One that has never felt a drumstick. No dents, no marks, no nuthin'. Anything less will give less.
This will be a battle! I have several times had my kit played by others (without permission) who have seen the nice new heads on the bottom and immediately turned the toms upside down to enjoy the new drumskins that they saw there. One even then had the gall to then criticise the tuning and ask for the drum key so he could "correct" it. Considering that he had just cost me about $200 for new bottom heads to repair the damage he had already done... But that was done, and we needed to play. I prayerfully gave it to him.
He sounded pretty bad and knew it. He blamed the kit of course, which I had made sound pretty good that same morning (if I do say so myself but so did others). God works in strange ways. But on that occasion the church insisted on paying for the new skins, and the following Saturday I spent a few hours fitting and tuning them.
It will be a battle. Most churches just give up. But what is good enough for God?
You need a new stool
The drum stool needs to be adjustable for the length of the drummer's lower legs. Their upper legs need to be horizontal at rest.
It must not fall over or break. I haven't seem a drummer seriously injured by a bad stool breaking, but I have seen several break, and I have seen a bar stool break and the shaft did the sitter life-threatening injuries that took months of surgery to treat. It's a nightmare.
The stool must allow the drummer to be comfortable. A stack of plastic chairs looks as shoddy as it is.
If you are not convinced, just ask your insurance agent whether your current stool or chair makes your church liable for future injury claims (back injuries in particular) and how much your premiums should be increased to cover them. Then spend that money on a new stool instead. You'll probably have enough left over to buy the drummer a music stand and maybe even a wedge as well, see below.
The cymbals are far too big
This assumes that you've disposed of the drum booth. If your drummer is playing at deafening volume then they need big plates of course.
But I have played for a congregation of over a thousand enthusiastic voices, unmiked, and my main crash cymbal for that was a 12" paperthin. I did also have a 14" fast crash (still thin) for crescendos. And it sounded good. Let me guess... if you have one crash it's a 16" medium, and if there's a second it's an 18", right?
Those are fine for escapism in a crowded pub on a Saturday night. But you can do better.
But my bell bronze paperthins are played by very few drummers. They are orchestral cymbals. Your average pub drummer would break them clean in half.
Most churches need two crashes, an 8" and a 10" or a 10" and a 12", medium weight and B8 bronze (aka 2002 alloy) which is stronger and in all ways more forgiving than professional cymbals which are more expensive and contain more tin. No other alloy will do as well. Brass is horrible, nickel silver has a particular flavour that only one percussionist in history has ever really used well (the awesome Dame Evelyn_Glennie)... B8 is popular for a reason. They may well be labelled "splash" and your drummer may object to that! Diplomacy called for, start out maybe with one splash and one of your existing crashes... Or let that drummer stay in the cage while you find other drummers that are more competent and teachable....
Worship drumming is a calling, and it requires both a gift and an anointing. I have met excellent professional drummers who were Christians but were not equipped for worship drumming. And such people are often placed under great pressure by their congregations to play in church, and need our prayers.
But just give your drummer some plates that they can enjoy playing well and you may be amazed at the way their playing improves!
The drummer needs space
The drummer needs to be able to get in and out of the kit just as much (and as easily) as any other bandmember needs to be able to get off stage when appropriate. And that needs space.
They shouldn't be expected to stay on their stool while all the other band members can exit. Sounds unlikely? Not the most common problem, but not all that unusual.
And their instruments need to be respected. I have only once had this happen to me, but it amazes me.... it was a Synod communion service. One of the servers deliberately stood with her robes touching my cymbals! I quietly asked her to move just a few inches so I could play. She replied "You're too loud". Now, I wonder, if the sax player had been handy, would she have similarly dropped a handkerchief into the bell of the sax? Of course not.
If you are in authority and see that happen, tell the offender that they need to move and to later apologise. As I said I have only had it happen to me once. Perhaps I just look fierce! Because I have since seen many similar things happen to other drummers now that I watch for them. And it still amazes me.
I suppose I could just have just played a bit louder, I didn't even think of doing that until afterwards. I was there to support the worship even if she wasn't. I didn't need to even use the cymbals she was muffling... my 20" ride crashes really well if I hit it properly, and it was out of her reach, but I wanted to use the 12" paperthin next to her... because it was so much softer.
The drummer is being abused
A quick quizz... actually a detailed one...
Does your drummer get their own foldback wedge? Where is it in the priorities?
Your first wedge goes to the vocallists of course. The second to the drummer. If you have more than one foldback send, probably the vocal mix is what they need. Giving them their own mix is a luxury few can afford timewise... even if your system allows it, do you and they have time to get that mix right? A good vocal mix is far better for the drummer than any bad mix would be.
How do you expect them to help you to control the feel and tempo if they can't hear you? It is abusive to expect that, surely?
Does your drummer have a music stand? Even if they aren't reading charts, they should have a copy of the song in front of them, a one-page version preferably of course.
My favourite ever comment from a worship musician came from an 11-year-old tenor sax player. I had written some sax and trumpet parts for "Now is the Time" which really rocked (I must get permission to publish them someday) and she said "Next time can I have the words too?" I apologised, I said I hadn't thought of that, and that it must have been hard to keep her place but she that had done it well. She looked at me clearly insulted. "No, I never have trouble keeping my place, but if I only have the notes and not the words I know what to play but not really how to play them." That is a worship musician!
To expect any less from your drummer is abusive. And when the worship leader says or signs "Go back to the second bridge" how is the drummer expected to know what that means if they don't have the music?
One of the most helpful things a good worship drummer does is a fill known as a "vocal cue". It naturally leads into a vocal entry. Another is to change and support the mood. For example go from a rock rhythm to a simple bass and cross-stick pattern to pull back the intensity for a more reflective feel. They need to be able to see these things coming.
But it gets far worse.
My experience is, I am very rarely offered a music stand. If I ask for one I'm told it's more important for the vocalists to have one each than for the drummer to have one at all. So I bring my own. The worship leader then comes over and if I'm lucky says "You don't need this do you?" as they take it to give to another musician. If I'm less lucky it just disappears the minute my back is turned.
(I have even on one occasion got it back at the end of the service with my name label already scraped off! That was a personal best!)
So I now often carry two, one good orchestral stand for setup and one little folding one that lives in the traps case and doesn't come out until the service is about to start. In practice, after I lose my orchestral stand I just put the music on the floor tom. Not the best but better than losing the folding stand, which is a bit more fragile... as it is I have had three of these destroyed by other band members over the years, and never an apology... they seem to think it's my fault for having a folding stand rather than bringing a second orchestral one.
And I now have my stands unobtrusively engraved with my name as well as labelled a bit more obviously (but out of sight of the congregation), just in case the next time the obvious paper label is scraped off the venue has the same brand of stand as I have! But that hasn't happened again. However I have several times been abused for asking for my stand back after it was packed away with the others despite the obvious label.
My Personal Best
One such incident is worth a little more detail. My stand, clearly marked with my name, has disappeared. I'm otherwise all packed up and ready to go, and am starting to move the gear to the car. I ask about the stand. "Look, we're all ready to go, do you really need it back now?" I live ninety minutes drive from this particular church. A three hour round trip to collect the stand... if and when anyone can make the time to let me in and find it for me. Is that abusive or what?
Typically no other band member is even asked to bring their own stand, but I need to bring two, and I prayerfully do but that is abusive. And I am not alone!
Now to the gear. Does your drummer bring their own? Are they expected to let others play it? Are any of your other musicians expected to let others play their personal instruments?
In professional life, drummers often do share kits. The support act drummer often just brings their own "breakables".... cymbals, snare drum, maybe kick pedal (although only the cymbals are really "breakable"). This makes for faster changeovers.
And to setup. Does the band ever start without the drummer being ready? Isn't that rather rude? Why does it happen?
The organ and piano are probably set up ready for the player to come in. Other church users are expected to fit in with this. The church is designed to allow it. Do you give the same consideration to the drummer?
I expect that the organist has the key to get into the church. If the drummer wanted to be early to set up, could they get in? Would they dare ask? Shouldn't it be offered to them without them asking?
And if they are there thirty minutes early to set up, but for some reason need another five minutes, and the band is so rushed for time (owing to their poor planning) that they can't wait even that, isn't it reasonable to offer the drummer a quick apology at that point and thank you for being there early? But in my experience even if such an apology is given it's a mockery of one. And that is again abusive.
More to follow, and see also nothing could be dumber.
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