Kim Gentes

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 good 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: The Musicademy Intermediate Worship Drums Course

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.

It is from that perspective that I begin watching and reviewing the DVD from drummer/clinician Carl Albrecht, entitled "The Beginning Drummer". First off, let me give you an overview of the DVD content. Carl covers the following in this DVD:

• The Set-Up (drum kit positioning/fit)
• Tuning (kick, snare and toms)
• Rudiments & Basic Technique
• Rudiments on the Kit
• Basic Grooves (8th note groove, 16th note groove, triplet groove, the shuffle)
• Closing comments

While "The Beginning Drummer" DVD is focused on developing the framework of how to play the drums, it is much more than just a great tool for just novice drummers. I would recommend this DVD to any drummer, whether a beginner or an advanced player. Any drummer will benefit from this excellent tool. All the segments taught on the DVD are explained in crisp, succinct language and then demonstrated with nicely paced lesson that can be used as a guide to your own practice time. The DVD also has a couple of good bonus features- an eclectic three and a half minute solo and a very important reminder to drummers of the essential nature of timing and practicing with a metronome.

"The Beginning Drummer" DVD is all of what you would need for a thorough introduction to drumming. What really impressed me was Carl's excellent ability to both teach and execute each lesson topic. He is obviously a gifted communicator, as well as musician. Carl's personal style helps combine the technical details and terminology in what feels like a private lesson. Throughout the DVD he gives you all the proper musical foundations for playing drums, while also focusing that knowledge on his goal of serving God and others in music. Carl is a servant and he approaches this teaching DVD from that perspective. He interweaves this concept across the lessons, even including a brief prayer to begin the training.

No detail or topic is left out on this exhaustive DVD that completely covers the topic of "The Beginning Drummer". I was very impressed with the content, communication, and the videography for this training tool. Whether you are a veteran drummer who wants to get a complete treatment of all the foundations of drummer to brush up on technique, or a new drummer looking for "the" video guide to take you through a step-by-step introduction on playing the drums- this DVD will serve you well.

This DVD is an impressive and essential part of any modern church's music library. I highly recommend it and am happy to grant it an Editor's Choice Award. Great work Carl!

Product Link http://carlalbrecht.com/store/the-beginning-drummer-dvd/

Review by Kim Gentes

There are as many definitions of "worship" in the church as there are teachers, which results in a myriad of reflection, study and teachings on the topic.  Captivating this topic in a helpful video symposium, Vineyard Worship resources and host Dan Wilt have gathered some of the most insightful and influential voices in the global church.  The new DVD entitled "What is Worship ?" serves as a panorama of expression from scholars like Peter Fitch, N.T. Wright, Peter Davids and Don Williams.  Adding pastors and writers such as John Wimber, Derek Morphew, and John Eldredge, along with worship leaders Matt Redman, Brian Doerksen, David Ruis, Tim Hughes, Kathryn Scott and Nigel Briggs this DVD teaching tool is an hour and ten minutes of coordinated walk through many topics centered around a culturally-current definition of worship.

"What is Worship?" walks through topics such as "Who we worship", "Why we worship" and "how we worship" as it prepares the viewer by laying the groundwork for its thesis. In the 5th chapter of the DVD (about 12minutes into it) Dan Wilt frames a definition of worship that is expanded up in the remaining 11 chapters of the DVD.   In listening and watching a DVD like this, I started off thinking, " I already know what worship is.  I am not going to learn much here."  I was wrong.  I found myself learning a lot, and then re-watching the DVD two more times to soak in.

What I enjoyed most about the DVD was the teaching from N.T. Wright, who's scriptural understanding of the throne room scene in Revelation 4 and 5 is particularly insightful.  Discussion with scholar Peter Fitch and Don Williams were also excellent, as was a genuinely personal interview with Matt Redman.  I found the pastoral contributions of John Wimber and David Ruis to be both well thought and challenging.  Noted author John Eldredge (whose books include "Wild at Heart", "Sacred Romance", and others) contributes a short, but very welcomed warning for our church culture to remain clear on the balance of major and minor messages in the Christian life.

The DVD has the nuance of a 60-minutes style interview/monologue interlaced with a teaching style outline framing the chapters and their transitions by Dan Wilt.  It is a viewing experience that is very easy to enjoy and learn.  The videography is well done, save a couple of clips of archive footage that were integrated into the DVD.  The DVD has options for Spanish and Dutch subtitles, as well.

This DVD could easily be the basis for a 3 or 4 week small group, and it is nicely segmented for stop and start viewing, if needed.  In fact, one thing you should be aware of is that its likely you can't digest the material in the hour and ten minutes in which it is presented.  This is simply because the points are rendered quickly and the presentation moves on.  If you aren't watching it carefully, you will miss points made along the way, which is a great argument for watching it multiple times. Alternatively, viewing this DVD in segments (4 chapters at a time) would be a great way to walk through it in a group.  A good application of this would be for a worship leader to present 15 minutes of this DVD to their worship/praise team as a teaching tool during a rehearsal or team meeting.  Not only would it fuel discussion, but would expose the team to some excellent teaching.

This DVD is a very well-thought, well-presented tool, that is useful in any church. I highly recommend it.  You can view online details (chapter titles) and an extended online video of the DVD by clicking on/viewing the clip above.

Product Link: What Is Worship? (DVD)

Review by Kim Gentes

Musicians have always understood something about learning and playing music. Moving from the use of basic constructs and components, like notes, rhythms, chords and strums, the way on to proficiency is two-fold: modeling and intrinsics. Ask any quality musician and they will tell you that understanding the instruction and mechanics of playing an instrument are just the building blocks of music. How you take those skills and apply them will develop into your style. Modeling is simply learning by example. When speaking of intrinsics in music, we are talking about the nuances that are part of the instrument and its operation, but need a veteran to really bring them out.

"Acoustic Guitar", the latest instructional DVD from Paul Baloche's Modern Worship Series, is a complete volume built on these ideas- modeling the intrinsics of playing an acoustic guitar to the average rhythm guitar player. Paul serves as your own acoustic guitar version of Yoda, taking you through all the secrets of the instrument. But unlike his Jedi Master counterpart in the movies, Paul's digital video version of your trials won't leave you frustrated or turning to the dark side. The techniques learned in this DVD are the summation of every good nuance, tip and hint that a rhythm guitar player or worship leader/guitarist will need to know and (for some of us) may have searched for years to find.

Paul starts off with simply tuning the guitar, which is the slowest part of the DVD. But don't let derail you. The first major concept Paul introduces is what he calls the "open chord" concept, something familiar to most acoustic guitarists leading contemporary worship. Paul makes clear how you can play dozens of songs in the key of E by using open faced A2-form chords across the fret board. If that sounds complicated, don't worry about it, Paul will have you in the "know" in just a few minutes with his great, personal style and patience in explaining each detail he is demonstrating. He spends a lot of time explaining, showing, exampling this method, and this is good because this one technique is enough for weeks worth of revising and enhancing your current repertoire into an uncluttered modern acoustic sound.

From there it's an X-wing fighter, rocket ship ride through 24 "chapters" in which Paul covers a blizzard of techniques. But no techniques are tossed out without an example. He painstakingly shows you exactly what to do, and always gives a song sample in which it can be used. In fact, every single technique on this DVD is accessible to the average Joe (or Luke) acoustic guitar player, save perhaps the very last topic, when our guitar teaching Yoda makes us face those dreaded barre chords. But that time you have gone through everything from finger picking, using a capo, strumming patterns, to right/left hand dampening, walkdowns, and triads. There is far too much content on this DVD to review in detail, which is due in large part to Paul's personal approach and taking time on each topic to show and explain everything. But even with the 2 hours and 30min of digital footage on this DVD, you will have material enough for many weeks of practicing and incorporating the excellent instruction communicated here. Feel free to take breaks, come back after a couple days practicing one especially pertinent concept, and just jump back in. This is exactly what instructional DVDs are supposed to be!

One thing to keep in mind is that this is not really a lesson plan or a progressively built method of learning guitar. The person most suited for this DVD is the average acoustic guitar player or worship leader. You will need understanding of what the basic open faced chords are, and how to play regular strumming patterns with them. It helps if you are familiar with how a chord is constructed, but that is not absolutely necessary. I would guess that 95% of the acoustic guitar playing worship leaders out there would greatly benefit from this DVD, even those with strong proficiency, because it will force you to re-establish all these important concepts not only in your mind, but make you practice along with Paul as he strums and hums along through every topic. And for those of you who think you are pretty much master's at this point, then I would suggest this DVD for another reason- a teaching tool. Most people who are exceedingly proficient at an instrument have little ability, if any, to help communicate their craft to people of average ability. The beauty of this, and all of Paul's resources, is that Paul is a master communicator as well as musician. You aren't talked down to and you aren't left dumbfounded in the wake of endless technical terms. It's just you and your Jedi Master of acoustic guitar (Paul) sitting down for many, many mini-session of great training.

So if you want to excel at your acoustic guitar skills, this DVD is absolutely perfect for you. If you are a master already, this DVD is exactly what will communicate what others have been asking you to show them but you have not been able to explain.

The companion instructional booklet is an excellent resource. It is a PDF downloadable file that comes with the purchase of the DVD (you will have a free link for it online once you purchase the DVD), and it is a scripted outline of the DVD from start to finish. Not only does it include every chord and progression played, but also references and content to the songs exampled too.

The "Acoustic Guitar" instructional DVD is an easy winner of our Editor's Choice Award for an exceptional resource- great job Paul! If you are a guitar player, this is a resource you really should have at least one of for your church music/worship department library. Well, I am off to practice my triads in galaxy far, far away...

Product Link: Modern Worship Series -Acoustic Guitar with Paul Baloche - Instructional DVD

Review by Kim Gentes

Hear Harmony I, II, and Warm Up

Hear Harmony was the winner of the 2004 Resource of the Year from WorshipMusic.com.

Hear Harmony are Vocal Training CDs focusing on harmony through independent singing in rounds, parallel 3rds, finding a starting pitch and harmonizing above or below the harmony. There are 3 CDs available in the series and each focuses on training through actual particpatory exercises. Demonstration followed by an opportunity to sing along.

REVIEW :

Hear Harmony is a wonderful 2 CD set that introduces the concept of learning to sing harmony. The Lessons begin with the very basics of teaching the listener come concepts for ear-training. In order to sing harmony one must start with ear training. Hear Harmony does a wonderful job of teaching the listener to pick out the differences between melody and harmony lines in a song using 2 familiar songs most of us learned as children. 

Succeeding the first five sessions, the lessons break in to the real strength of the Hear Harmony method: the exercises. The exercises start at a very basic level and as they progress the build on each previous exercise. The exercises begin by singing numbers in the steps of the major scale and learning to sing in parallel thirds, which is the most common that we hear on a daily basis. The lessons then segue into singing notes using solfeg (i.e. doe, ray, me) and the first CD finishes with the building upon previous lessons and singing over different chord progressions and harmonizing to melodies that have skips in the intervals of the notes. When you break in to the second CD, the fun really begins. You are shown what it sounds like to sing in and out of tune on a harmony line and how to train your ear to hear the difference. The harmony exercises become more complex with continuing to learn to sing harmony at a third and forth interval above the melody line and when each is appropriate. 

The reward start to come in the second half of the CD as you move from exercises to working out harmony parts on familiar songs such as Are You Sleeping, Jesus Loves Me, Amazing Grace and others. This is where the exercises really begin to make sense as they are applied in these songs. As you continue to practice the exercises and sing along with the songs, you will grow stronger in learning to sing harmony. The only difficulty that I noticed in working through the lessons is that it can get tedious and at times, monotonous. But if you think back to learning to play an instrument in school the practice although time consuming and sometimes difficult to follow through on, did pay dividends if you stuck with it. The same is true of these lessons. 

If you have never been able to sing harmony in the past, this double CD set will help you, but it is not going to come overnight. If you are able to sing harmony to some degree, this CD will help you understand some of the wherefores behind singing harmony and you will improve. Even if you have been singing harmony for years, you will be able to glean something from the Hear Harmony CD, even if it is just using the scales as warm-up exercises. All in all I think that the Hear Harmony CD set would be a great tool in any worship leaders library. 

Review by Brian Bloom

Editor's Note: Not only as an editor, but as a worship leader, I must completely agree with Brian's review of the Hear Harmony Vocal Training CDs (see the review below). We need more solid resources like this in the church. So many vocal resources strive to fix & perfect technique but don't actually teach people (from scratch) the simple how-to's of attaining proper pitch (whether in a harmony or melody context). I was so happy to see this being done, and done with excellence, we decided to select Hear Harmony Vocal Training with our Editor's Choice Award. Great work, Hear Harmony! Great review Brian! I strongly encourage ALL you worship leaders and vocalists (current and hopefuls!) out there to seriously investigate this great new resource. Be sure you check out both Part 1 and Part 2 of this resource (available on separate CDs).  Kim Gentes

Executive Producer: Joe Randeen 
Producer/Instructor: Rachelle Randeen 
Vocalists: Andreana Arganda, Raquel Cooke, Murray Hiebert, Tony Sanchez 
Engineer: Jeff Dykhouse

Available online at Amazon at:

Hear Harmony Part 1
Hear Harmony Part 2

In the harmony with you,
Kim Gentes