Video Transcript: Drums


All right, three key instruments. We looked at the bass now we're looking at the drums, the drums and the bass off and go together. Our drums are first of all appropriate for worship. The Bible encourages loud allow response to God's goodness. Psalm 98 make a joyful noise unto the Lord or the earth, make a loud noise, and rejoice and sing praise. 


Number two, though drums are not mentioned in the Bible's symbols are praise him with the clash of cymbals. Praise Him with resounding cymbals and a drum kit is you know, at least half of it is made up of symbols so I don't think got objects to having drums in a worship service. Why is the drum becoming a standard part of the worship instrument ensemble at least if churches are trying to go a little contemporary and number one, contemporary music is more syncopated, thus requiring a firm consistent steady beats. Again, you know, I have my guitar with me, I don't, I'm not a drummer myself. But you know, guitars often act like drums, if I'm doing (singing Lord lift your Name on


People wouldn't know when the phrase is finished without some kind of audio cue is it Lord, I loved singing your praises. I'm so glad I mean, unless you're a good count at counting and knowing how many beats and how many we wait before we come in, but with the with a beat, it's it's (Ssinging same song) certain with the beat sort of lets you know when we've come back home, to sing the phrase again. And so that's what a drum do does, it sort of lets you it has little cues, louds and Softs that sort of let you know when you're coming in again, 


number two, our culture our culture likes a beat. They like bass, and they like a bit of a beat. 


Number three people today are exposed to an incredible wide variety of music today via the internet. And so, and most of it is distinguished, most most of it distinguishes itself from other music, by it's speeds. You know, the left there's a there's a country B. (playing guitar)


There's a kind of a driving rock beat (playing guitar). There's a Latin beat, there's a Calypso beat, and the minute you start hearing these different beats, it's like, oh, that's a different kind of song. And beat is the thing that distinguishes it. So the drummer really plays a big role in terms of what this sound sounds like, well, what are the basic kind of kinds of drums, probably one of the most simple drums that people are starting to use in worship surfaces, especially if they're just starting is they have a gem Bay and the gem Bay is just, you know, it's about the size of a stool and, and it just sits on the ground nicely, or you hold it between your knees. And it's just one drum. And it's sort of, you know, someone can kind of just (clapping hands on legs) kind of keep a basic beat, you can kind of do a little gem Bay thing. So it doesn't require as much skill, young people can come up and give it a try. And it's sort of an easy way that a church can start playing the drums without, you know, it's not, it can be loud, it can be soft. And it can be done just with your hands, a lot of people can keep the rhythm better with their hands. 


Number two is a new kind of little hand drum. It's a Cajon, I don't know how to pronounce it, but this little box that you sit on, and then you actually just slap the sides. And if you Google it, you'll see people, you know, they just sort of slap the sides kind of like a Jim Bay, but it's when you sit down, it's really kind of cool. 


Number three, a hand drum where you actually hold the drum in your hand, it's kind of like a tambourine thing. And I've been to a conference where we tend people were in a circle and rah given a little hand drum and, and we just start beating up rhythms together and it sounds pretty good. There's a kettle drum, those are used in orchestras. Those are pretty cool. They're really loud. Probably the most common thing using the worship service is a it's what's called drum kit and drum kit has several drums. One is the big bass drum, and it's sort of the, you know, the, you know, people use your foot and it's got this sound to it. And it's usually on the downbeat, you know, 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4. So it makes that one beat, strong. And then you have the snare, which is a smaller drama, but it has a real sharp sound to it. So the the one beat is, boom, and then the steric drum comes with a little higher beat, and it's a lot higher, it's a little snappy. 


So it's (playing drums on the back of his guitar) then there's, there's some other drums on the ground, they're called Toms. And you can have two or three or four, some people have a whole bunch of them. And each one is tune, so that their toms drum, so one's a little higher pitch, one's a little lower pitch. And so it creates that doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. When you hear someone do that, they're playing the Tom's, then there'll be assemble, it's called the ride. And they take their, their, their stick, and they just kind of hit that and it just gives a little ring. And then there's two, usually two symbols to the side, and they're on a stand and they can clap together. That's called the hi hat. And they can close it, and that gives one song and they can open it, that gives another sound. And then they have several other symbols and their crashes, you know, when you see a drummer, really smash it and makes this sound, loud sound, it's various crashes, and they have different ones in different pitches, and then they try to, you know, put all of that together. Keeping beat is is is as basic as your heartbeat. 


I mentioned these drum circles before you can take people have ever played drums, put them in a circle, give a drum and start beating out and then having someone you know, play a little something different, but try to play, you know, something that fits what I'm doing. And you know, 10 people together that haven't played drums before will sound great. Because rhythm you know, the ticking of a clock, the ticking of our of our hearts is kind of a regular pattern, we see and hear those regular patterns, you know, everywhere in our lives. And so that's what a drum does, it keeps a regular beat. The basic music beat time signatures. So each song has a time signature kind of thing that tells you what kind of beat it is. And these three are the most common beats four four time is where the quarter note gets the beat. And there's four of them in every measure. So you just go 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4, and the whole song fits with that beat. Now some songs have three four times, that means there's three beats for every one measure. So it's like this 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3. Notice one gets a little more emphasis than two and three. So it's fun 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3. And that's what a waltz is. It's amazing grace, so amazing. Grace is in three, four, then a little more complicated is six, eight time. 


And that's 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6. A lot of times people struggle with that, because then they see a dotted quarter and it's hard. But the way to think of six eight time is on the one hand, you have six things going on. But those six are divided into three. So then there's, there's two, and there's six. So one hand I'm gonna just do two, and the other hand, I'll do six, so it's 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6.


So in my head, depending on what instrument or what I'm doing, I can either have the 1 2 1 2 or I need a 1 2 3 4 5 6 going on in my head depending on what the notes are. So that's a little bit more complicated. The basic beat that most songs are in is four, four times so 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 and what I have on the PowerPoint for you here is sort of how the drummer does. This is just your basic drummer beat. When I was in seminary I bought I never played the drum before. But I bought a set from this old jazz player. And I thought, you know, how hard can this be, and I take it home. And someone showed me that the basic beat, it can be learned simply, it can be the basis of most songs. But the bass drum usually is playing with it with the foot. And the bass drum goes 1 1 1


and 2, and 3, and 4 so on. So it's one and 2, and 3 and 1 and 2, and 3, or and 3, and 3, and 1. The stairs is just playing on two and four. So it's one, three. So and then the hi hat is doing the eight note. I can't I can't play all the parts because I only have two hands and you need three things. But if you just follow these numbers and try to get this basic beat with a drum, you can actually start learning how to play the drums. Now, I'm just putting this little tiny video together to go with the PowerPoints. We're going to actually interview in the next session video with with an actual drummer who actually knows what he's doing and can try to help. How do you how do you make the most out of a drum and let the drum not be a distraction but a point of worship




Last modified: Thursday, October 15, 2020, 10:06 AM