Yes, this is an important thread, because church drummers face a lot of issues that drummers in other venues don't. Sticky it and keep it!
Playing in church is the most frustrating, and at the same time most rewarding experience there can be. We will ALWAYS deal with the volume issue until we die. No one is ever gonna be totally happy that you are there and what you are playing. It will always be a life lesson for you in humility and patience. Church music will never be the wellspring of creativity and perfect expression that it should be - deal with it! People working in other areas of the church have their challenges, too.
You have to learn dynamics, listening, and tuning skills. I use my double kicks and my China cymbal in worship. How? Because I play them at the right moment, and at the right volume. Personally, you will have to learn when to keep silent, and when to speak up for yourself. If you don't fight back a little, you will end up in that drum room with foam pads on your drums playing with brushes - or worse, that instrument of the Antichrist himself: Electronic pads, which never get turned up in the mix over the sound of the stick hitting the rubber, because Joe-Bob's 'ministry' is running sound board, when he's not selling storm doors the rest of the week. One day, frustrated, and facing the possible 'drum booth scenario,' I said to the worship leader, "You want Contemporary Music? You're gonna have to live with Contemporary VOLUME." He got the point.
I switched to my 18" kick drum and Mahogany snare, and it is worth it to see the smile on the sound man's face. I can't convince them that the plexi whale tank exacerbates volume problems because I can't hear the room volume and have to gauge my volume by my monitor, which is turned up so I can hear it above the drums, and. . . I fold it up each week, and sometimes, everyone 'forgets' to put it back up for some reason. . .
Despite the frustrations, it is very rewarding. Glen Kaiser of Rez band once said that if you play every Sunday, you will play in front of a lot more people in your life and affect more lives than your 'Christian rock band' ever will. I didn't really think it was true 20 years ago, but now, I do.
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