For the last 20 years of musical involvement I personally had been engaged training, teaching, and developing materials for guitar players, worship leaders, and drummers. But my musical journey began actually with playing drums in junior and senior high school bands. Later, in college, I participating in local churches as a drummer, and eventually helped develop drummers by writing some essentials curriculum for drums. Back in the early days of the modern praise and worship sound being used in local churches, there was very little in the way of resources for musical training. In the last 5-10 years, these resources have begun to spring up from notable musicians and clinicians around the worship community.Most of the contributions in the musical training within the worship community have been more of “clinic session” style resources. Those clinic style DVDs deal topically or stylistically with learning how to play an instrument in the worship setting. However, what has been missing from the resourcing cache of the modern church are extensive and comprehensive full length courses on given instruments. To that end, Musicademy brings us “Worship Drums Course: Beginners“ and “Worship Drums Course: Intermediate“, the first fully enclosed lesson series that takes you from a novice to “ready-to-play” participant in your local church worship band.
Having spent years as a drummer and many additional years as a worship leader, I feel that one of the critical components of modern church music is a competent drummer. The Musicademy “Worship Drums Course” contents are basically the equivalent of having dozens of lessons compiled onto DVD, organized into step-by-step chapters and ready for you to start learning!
Right from the start, Colin Brookes, the primary instructor on the DVDs, explains each concept verbally with clarity and a warm approachable manner. As you roll through the lessons, on-screen subtitles punctuate the points. The typical lesson consists of:
- a brief verbal introduction
- a drum notation script across the bottom of the screen
- Colin playing the rudiment or lesson point
- an example of that skill being implemented in a full rhythm (with some lead in measures).
Most lessons included at least 2 or 3 complete reps where the student can actually follow along and work out the rhythm.
This is a quality approach to teaching. There is important information being conveyed, but also plenty of clear examples and lots of repetition to give the student time to lock in to the concept by actually playing. Many times in the lessons, Colin shows both a regular speed example of the beat and a slowed down version. This is crucial to building a proper foundation in drumming technique. While it is important to practice in music—it is essential to practice right! To make sure this happens Colin slows down the tempo and students are forced to learn the beat the right way. The result is that you spend hours of on DVD time (and hours more of off-DVD time) practicing the skills the right way. As the skill improves, then speed can be increased.
In addition to the professional approach being taken on the lessons in both Beginner and Intermediate drum courses, both DVD sets include two other important add-on content sections: Quick Tips and Interviews. The Quick Tips are a collection of simple practical notes about the instrument and your role with it- things like: drum kit positioning, eye contact with the worship leader, fast /slow click speeds, dynamics, music styles, syncing with the bass, and more. The Interviews are a collection of personal stories, tips and insights from worship leaders, drummers and other musicians, each of which explain some topic from their perspective and experience.
Musicademy has done a very good job at not only collecting a complete set of lessons (for each of the Beginning and Intermediate lessons), but it has done this with an eye to top notch video production and editing, making the DVDs a joy to use.
Are you a new drummer who wants to make sure you learn all the basics correctly, but at your own pace or from your own location? If so, then “Worship Drums Course: Beginners” is the course for you!
Are you current playing drums, but want to move forward with learning moderate level beats or launching into another level of skill on your instrument? If so, then “Worship Drums Course: Intermediate” will likely be very helpful to you!
Each DVD set (Beginning and Intermediate) contains 3 DVDs and a full 6hours of content. This is a great value! If you have ever gone to get private lessons, you know the cost of learning an instrument can be very expensive. These DVDs not only give you top notch professional training, but they deliver it in a usable medium (play at home, at church or wherever you can set up to learn) and at a cost that is very affordable.
Product link: http://www.worshipmusic.com/musicademydrums.html
Review by Kim Anthony Gentes
When I began playing music, back in the mid-80's, my first instrument was drums. For ten years I had the opportunity to play (and eventually instruct) drums in context of local churches. Towards the end of that time, I worked with beginning drummers trying to help them learn the essentials of the instrument. Also, it was important to me to take the skills of a drummer and help them make a significant contribution to their local church worship.
