Ask the expert – where to go for drum resources

Nennisha emails:

“I am currently learning to play the drums and have brought the Beginners DVDs already which I have found most helpful. But I have to say I am slightly disappointed after noticing the plethora of guitar and keyboard help available on your website and hardly any for the drums. Do you think you could point me in the right direction for drums tabs for songs like Come Now is the Time to Worship, Anointing Fall on Me, Here I am to Worship etc.”

Musicademy has tended to produce material in line with the popularity of different instruments. The bottom line is that there are a lot more guitarists, keyboard players and singers out there than there are drummers. Its also been dictated by the availability of people to write for us on the website. We are actually a very small team at Musicademy and our DVD presenters like Colin Brookes (drums) and Matt Weeks (bass) do have proper day jobs elsewhere. As a guitarist Andy obviously has plenty to say on that and writes extensively on general aspects of musicianship. Tim, our other “in house” writer is primarily a keys player but as a worship director and multi instrumentalist has many other perspectives too. The various guest bloggers who very kindly write for us tend to be guitarists and singers so we’re actually short of material from bass players, drummers, saxophonists, cellists etc etc.

Having said all that, we asked our friend Mark Jones from Psalm Drummers for his thoughts. Mark has produced a hand percussion DVD which we will be launching on the webstore soon and in response to Nennisha’s request he has offered to create us some blog resources for drummers and percussionists in the near future.

Mark says that at Psalm Drummers they get a number of similar requests. Often questions are about technique or how you would go about putting percussion parts down to a particular song. On the subject of drum tabs Mark says “I must know 300+ drummers and yet probably only 10% will read drum music and only a few more use some basic tabs. As you say there is very little written worship music for drummers and I think it is because drumming, particularly worship drumming, is an expression of playing something in response to what the heart is feeling and a response to what others are playing. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have structure or set groove which it will but the difference is in the way it is played. It’s all about feel and response.”

A couple of suggestions. The Psalm Drummers have a Facebook page where drummers chat to each other and blog. They also have have a South African based Psalm Drummer,  Matt Hains, who hosts a website called Peppermint Grove – there are some helpful videos there. Do also check out US based Drummers For Jesus.

If anyone reading this has something insightful to write on drums and percussion in worship then please do get in touch. Similarly, if you know of drumming resource websites you can point out to Nennisha then please do so in the comments box below. We often get asked about drum tab for worship songs, and we’ve not really found much available. There is more material than on the DVDs in our drum workbooks, but we’ve been constrained ourselves by the viability of producing further resources that have, unfortunately, a very small potential audience.

Other posts you might like:

Didgeridoo in worship – free video lesson

Free video drum lesson – your first rhythm

How to get more out of the drum beats you already know. (Part 1)

Developing the drumbeats you already know- Funky backbeat

Developing the drumbeats you already know part 3

50 tips – Drums

(Photo copyright – part of a series kindly loaned to us from St James Church Gerrards Cross)