Overplay cover band1/7/2023 ![]() People noticed the Church's kit sounded better, but only slightly because no matter how you set the drums up, all you can hear from the pews is thuddy, boomy, unfocused reflected sound because the sound system has no space for the drums. But while it sounded slightly better, I discovered that the shield prevented the drummer from hearing the rest of the group (the sound system has no monitoring).Įverything went fine the next day. I practised with the group using the church's kit after we had tuned it. Uneven tensions, dented heads, masking tape, awful. As expected the kit was in terrible shape. But the bass player did too and we had a good time. Of the four drummers, only one attended the workshop. Third that I be allowed to have an afternoon workshop the day before the service with the drummers on drum setup and tuning (because I had also volunteered to donate new heads). Second that I be allowed to select and play on the offertory. First, I would be allowed to play my own kit without a shield. I said yes, on three conditions, which were meant to prove my original point. Originally it was for the processional which I had written a few years before specially for the church. But the pastor and church council went ahead and got the shield anyway, and as I expected did not solve the problem.Ī year later, the pastor invited me on short notice to play drums for the church anniversary program. I told him that a shield would create more problems than it could solve, and volunteered to hold workshops with the drummers and the band to work out how to set up and play so as to minimise the complaints. I told him that the 1) the drums were not set up and tuned properly so they sounded like crap, 2) the drummers did not understand the dynamics of the church's acoustics, and 3) the band leader simply didn't know how to conduct the band and she was paying too much attention to the singers. Some years ago the pastor of our church asked me about a shield because people were complaining about the "loudness" of the drums. Once we got our PA fixed (improper installation and feed to the board), made the appropriate acoustical applications to the room (installed treatments and re-angled the sheetrock on three walls), cleaned up the feed on our subwoofer and provided hands-on training to our volunteer sound tech crew were we able to ditch the drum shield and have our drummers play to the room. Other common issues may include poor room acoustics, inexperienced sound techs, and drummers who have not yet mastered playing to the room. The second reason so many churches require a drum shield is because of the blind leading the blind: they see other churches doing it, so in their mind, that's got to be the only way to do it. This is simply a leadership strategy to reduce the number of complaints. Probably the single biggest issue is perception-some churches only employ a drum shield because church members "perceive" drums are louder when they are in the open than behind a shield.
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