Drums In Worship

Every style of music embodies certain rhythmic features, many of which can be clarified, enhanced, or emphasized by percussion instruments. This article outlines the historical use of percussion instruments and discusses their function in the praise-and-worship tradition.

The Vital Role of Percussion in Worship One of the three major components of music is rhythm (the other two being melody and harmony). Rhythm is the organization of music notational values into a pulsated time continuum. Rhythm includes such factors as beat (pulse), meter, tempo, and patterns of notes of varying lengths. The percussion section of an orchestra or band plays a major role in helping to establish, maintain, and control the rhythmic motion and timing in the music that the ensemble performs, particularly in contemporary styles of music centered around a rhythm section. Within the contemporary rhythm section, the drummer traditionally has the primary responsibility for the establishment, maintenance, and control of the "groove," which involves the combination of tempo and style. The groove forms the rhythmic foundation upon which most contemporary music is built. Percussion instruments may be defined as musical instruments that produce tones when they are hit, scraped, rubbed, shaken, or whirled. There are two categories of percussion instruments—those with definite pitch (such as the timpani, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, bells, or chimes) and those of indefinite pitch (such as drums of various types, cymbals, claves, castinets, triangle, woodblock, tambourine, or gong). Sound can be produced in percussion instruments in two ways. Idiophones, or self-sounding percussion instruments, produce sound when the main body of the instrument is hit, scraped, rubbed, shaken or whirled. Cymbals, gongs, mallet instruments (chimes, bells, marimba, xylophone), and Latin hand percussion (such as cabassa, gourd, claves, vibraslap, castinets) are examples of idiophones. Membranophones are percussion instruments which have a skin or other membranous material stretched over a hard hollow body. Sound is produced by striking the stretched membrane with the hand or with a beater. Most of the drum family falls into this category of instruments. Percussion Instruments in the Bible Three categories of percussion instruments are specifically mentioned in the Bible—cymbals, sistra, and timbrels. Cymbal. There were apparently two kinds of cymbals. The single cymbal, or the tselatsel, was a rattling, tinkling, or clattering cymbal that was possibly struck with some kind of implement (like a stick or rod) or clanged together with another cymbal. The double cymbal, or the metselath (double tinkler), was probably a pair of cymbals that could either be clanged together or struck with some kind of hard implement, much like the contemporary high hat (sock cymbal). Sistrum. The sistrum, or the menana, was an instrument constructed of metal rings which moved freely on metal rods mounted on a loop-like frame with a handle. The instrument made a rattling sound when shaken, similar to our contemporary rattles, shakers, tambourines, and the like. Timbrel. The timbrel, or toph, is variously translated as timbrel, tabret, or tambourine. It was a hand drum with a hard, hollow body (either open on one end or both ends) and a membranous head stretched over one open end. The timbrel head was struck either with the hand or a beater, similar to our contemporary tambourines and members of the drum family. In addition to these categories of percussion instruments mentioned in the Bible, a drum, or tympana, is mentioned in the Book of the Maccabees 9:39. This was probably a single-headed drum struck with either the hand or a beater. History of Percussion in Worship Rooted in the Hebraic worship found in the synagogues at the time of Christ, early Christian worship did not make use of instruments. Also, due to the intimate and sometimes clandestine nature of early Christian gatherings, instrumental music was deemed unnecessary or inappropriate. During the persecution of the church in the early centuries, musical instruments, particularly brass and percussion, were employed during the execution of Christians and the performing of pagan rituals. Therefore, because of their pagan associations, instruments were disallowed from use in worship at the Council of Laodicea in 367. An exception to this rule, however, was the worship of the Ethiopian church, which from the beginning featured drums, sistra, and sticks as well as dance. Percussion instruments were not used in Christian worship until the seventeenth century. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, only timpani (kettledrums) were prominently used in church music and only in the performance of large scale sacred choral works such as oratorios, masses, requiems, magnificats, cantatas, and coronation anthems. During the Romantic period (c. 1825–c. 1900), other percussion instruments were added to the orchestration of major choral works. However, these instruments continued to be generally absent from congregational worship, even well into the twentieth century. Rhythm Section in Praise Worship With the development of jazz in the United States in the early 1900's came a new role for the percussionist. The core of the jazz band (later, the dance band, swing band, or swing orchestra) was, and still is, the rhythm section, comprised of piano, bass, drums, and guitar. The drummer plays on a drum set made up of a battery of drums, cymbals, and other percussion instruments. Slowly, as churches in the late twentieth century began to incorporate orchestral instruments into worship, the drum set began to be employed in churches desiring a stylistic slant that used pop-rock and jazz idioms and contemporary praise music. Since the late 1960's and early 1970's, there has been an explosion of interest in praise music based in the contemporary rhythm section. The Drumset A basic drumset (also called trapset, traps, or drum kit) includes a bass drum (kick), a snare drum, one or more tom-toms, a high hat (sock cymbal), and two or more cymbals of varying weight and shape. The bass drum is usually muffled and often has either a partial front head or no front head. This provides a good, nonreverberating sound when the foot pedal strikes the back head. The high-hat cymbals are manipulated also by a foot pedal. Tom-toms can be double headed (for a more contained, controlled sound) or they can have a top head only (for a louder, less contained sound). The smaller tom-toms are attached to the drumset, while the larger ones, called floor toms, sit on the floor next to the drummer. The largest cymbal is the ride cymbal, which is used to help keep time. The medium-sized cymbals are crash cymbals, and the smallest are splash cymbals, all of which are used either for accent or color (musical mood setting). The drummer can also have an array of percussion instruments at his disposal, such as cowbells, woodblocks, inverted cymbals, wind chimes, shakers, and others. Drummers also carry a variety of sticks, mallets, and brushes to achieve a wide spectrum of effects. The Drummer The drummer is the rhythmic leader of the rhythm section. He is responsible for establishing a groove appropriate to the music being sung or played and for keeping the time, or tempo, very consistent. All tempo changes are led by the drummer. When writing for the drummer, the composer/arranger must take care to not overwrite for the drums (unless the composer is the drummer) but also not to ignore the drummer. Simple parts indicating the general rhythm pattern (at the beginning and at change-of-feel points) for one or two bars along with a brief explanation of style is almost always sufficient. Specific notation is rarely needed. Miking a drumset is a significant challenge. Care must be given to accurately reproduce the drum sound in the audio system while containing the sound enough so that the drums do not bleed into other microphones. Most professional drummers and sound men are familiar with this challenge and can be valuable resources. Further Developments in Drums The development of electronic music has opened new vistas for drummers. Drum sets can now be partially or totally electronic using either synthesized drum sounds, sampled drum sounds (i.e., real sounds that are digitally recorded and reproduced) or a combination of the two. Electronically produced percussion sounds can be accessed from the drum set, allowing the drummer to be essentially an entire percussion section. These electronic digitalized sounds do not replace the live percussion sounds, but rather add to the enormous array of sounds and effects that are at the disposal of the drummer. Drum Machines The way you use a drum machine in a service will depend upon the coordination of the main keyboard player. The drum machine is going to have to be controlled by that person, whether that person is the worship leader or not. Since the lead keyboard player must start and maintain the proper tempos and styles of the songs, it is his or her responsibility to program the drum machine and know where the appropriate patterns are. The main keyboard player will have to have some idea of how drums should be played or how they should sound in order to program the drum machine. With this basic knowledge, the rest can be learned somewhat simply. If all else fails, ask a real drummer to help you create all of the different drum patterns that can accompany the different song styles that you sing. As the worship leader, it is imperative that you are comfortable with the operation of all of the equipment you are using. You must be able to flow in praise and worship and not be distracted by the starting, stopping, and changing of drum patterns (if that is necessary). What this means is many hours of practice! You will only flow comfortably in the sanctuary if you are comfortable at home or in your practice time at the church. As a musician accompanying the worship leader, you will have to stay tuned in to all that the leader wants to do even more intensely than if you were leading. When you start out using the drum machine in church, start using it only on the fast songs. Prepare a 16-beat pattern to help keep a steady tempo with the congregation. The beat may be most appreciated on fast songs to add excitement to the music. The next step is to use it on medium tempo songs that have a basic 4/4 tempo. By now you and the congregation will become more comfortable and familiar with the drum machine. As you get acquainted with the use of the drum machine, I am sure that you will realize that having the proper volume settings is an important factor in the flow of the praise and worship. Once you and the congregation are really comfortable with the use of the drum machine in church, you can program very simple patterns to accompany the slow worship songs. Simple means using only the kick drum and high hat, or adding rim shots to those. Believe it or not, the Holy Spirit will still operate in your services, and the anointing will still be evident. I have found that the drum machine can be a very useful tool to any musician who will take the time to learn how to make it do what he or she wants it to do. I use it in all of the services in which I minister all around the world. Sometimes when I take my church worship team out to minister at special functions, I will use the drum machine rather than trying to take an entire drum set. The instruments that are being created with this new MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) technology are to be used for the glory and honor of God. I believe it is our responsibility as Christian musicians to study them to show ourselves approved, a Christian rightly dividing the Word of God through music.