It’s almost the weekend and you are playing drums in a church you’ve never been to before. Assuming you’re diligent, you inquire about their drum kit and find out that it is an electronic kit and for technical purposes you can’t bring your own. Whatever the scenario may be, it can be a night-and-day shift for many of us.
I thought this topic would be a single post, but let’s take it a little slower and break it up into a mini-series.
Here’s a tentative outline of what we’ll cover:
- Are There Really Benefits of Using Electronic Drums?
- 6 Reasons Why Electronic Drums Are Annoying
- 5 Things to Consider When Using Electronic Drums in a Live Setting
- 6 Awesome Electronic Drum Kits
In the meantime, you can watch this clip of me playing the kit from (the pic above) in a live worship setting – as long as you can ignore my singing. 😉
[tentblogger-youtube geIf0JR5o4Q]
Should be a very interesting perspective. As a worship pastor/consultant, I must admit that the greatest hurdle to circumvent within live worship are the acoustical battles between the sanctuary’s natural acoustics and acoustic drums… followed by on-stage amps.
With that being said, I personally prefer to play an acoustic instrument over an electronic one. Yet, I have come to understand that my personal preference is secondary to sound techs ability to appropriately provide the best audio mix for the congregation and their worship experience.
A number of years ago, the church I was serving at had to make a decision to exclusively use the Yamaha V-Drums because of our facilities acoustics. At first, our drummers did not care to play them, but over time began to understand the reasoning.
You got it right! We need to do what’s best for the whole, even if our preference is for something else.
Heck, I just wish that we had drums at all. Even if I were not the one playing them.
Love this site, bro.
thanks bro!
I use Roland V-Drums when playing with our worship team. Years ago, when our church first incorporated drums into worship they purchased an acoustic kit for $250 (60’s era Rogers 5-piece in White Marine Pearl, complete w/ Powertone snare, original hardware and hard cases – They had no idea how valuable this kit really was). It sounded great and we used it for a few years but it was a bit much for our facility. Our worship leader also wanted more diversity and sound options so he approached me about switching to electronic drums. We made the switch and for the most part I’m glad we did, although as most would agree the trigger response can occasionally be erratic and the cymbals still haven’t quite caught up with acoustic cymbals. Overall though, I enjoy playing electronics for worship.