WORSHIP LEADERS
ESSENTIAL LISTENING: SONG DYNAMICS FOR MD’ S & DRUMMERS | Grant Norsworthy
For our typical, contemporary-styled“ worship band”, the drummer is like the modern-day conductor. When the drums are playing, the other instrumentalists, our singers with mics and the congregation will follow the drummer!
It’ s important that all Musical Directors( MD’ s) and drummers understand this.
Traditional orchestras generally have someone out the front waving their arms— the conductor— who informs the musicians of( among other things) where the beat of the music is and, importantly for this article, the dynamics of the piece at any given moment. Supporting the symbology on the written, musical notation in front of each member of the orchestra, the conductor’ s arm gestures( possibly facial expressions and more) communicate whether the section of a piece should be low or high in volume / energy / intensity or anywhere in between.
But without a conductor, we usually rely on the drummer to inform us of where we should be on the dynamic scale at any given moment of a song- now mainly through sound rather than sight. If the drums are sounding exciting and high in energy, we will( or should) sing and play with matching excitement and energy. If the drums are gentle and prayerful, the whole team and congregation will follow.
My recent articles have explained how the ability to listen- and listen critically- is an essential prerequisite skill for good musicality. As the MD, I know that this skill is especially important in the drummer. During the drummer’ s personal preparation for our rehearsal of a song, I hope and expect that he / she will have: 1) listened critically to a sound recording( probably an original artist’ s version), 2) taken careful note of the main dynamic rises and falls and
3) noticed how the professional drummer on the recording has communicated those dynamic variations through their playing.
Now let me be very clear about this: Our typical, amateur, volunteer drummers will rarely( if ever) be able to reproduce every nuance of the drumming we might hear on a professional recording. I don’ t want that. It’ s not necessary. We don’ t need it! But we will need our drummer to come fully prepared to reproduce the main dynamic elements- the rises and falls in energy- of the example sound recording in their way and within their ability.
This takes some work and a more intentional approach to personal preparation than a lot of church drummers seem willing to undertake. Sadly, many are content to simply” wing it” during any pre-service rehearsal and the service itself. They simply serve up one or another of their preferred drumbeats, largely unchanged from start to finish, with only minimal— if any— variation in dynamics. They are unaware of the benefits, don’ t have the skill or have overlooked essential critical listening.
As a result, the whole band produces a version of the song with very little, or no discernible changes in dynamics. We miss a wonderful
opportunity to more warmly invite the“ voice” of our congregation through the allure of effective dynamic changes.
Using Phil Wickham’ s wonderful song“ Great Things” as an example, my last article described the dynamic variations found in the original recording in general terms.
But now we’ re getting more specific. Focusing on just the kick( aka bass) drum and the snare, let’ s map out what our drummers should hear and( hopefully) reproduce so that out version of“ Great Things” has the same or very similar dynamic variations.
Click this image for a timely reminder of Phil’ s original version here.
My dynamic graph for“ Great Things” from my last article is shared again here for reference but now showing a letter for each section that corresponds with the lettered notes below.
Yes, there’ s more than just kick and snare at our drummer’ s disposal- toms, hi-hats and cymbals at least- but I have chosen to leave those out and keep this as simple as possible. The“ thump” of the kick and the“ snap” of the snare( or their absence) are the main elements that communicate dynamics in our
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