Kim Gentes

Drum Grooves for Worship

The subtitle of this DVD is "Essential Patterns for the Top 100 CCLI Songs" and this is a descript summation of Carl's intention on this training resource DVD. Here is the premise- Carl reviewed the most popular 100 songs played in churches today (as ranked by CCLI) and listened to the recordings of those songs. In analyzing the songs, and the recordings of those songs, Carl found that all of them can be played in what amounts to 7 basic rhythm types. For those who don't know who he is, Carl Albrecht is to worship drumming what Tiger Woods is to golf- the perennial contributor that has more accolades and credits to his pedigree than I could put in a review of less than 3 pages. If you have heard any worship recordings in the last 20 years, there is a good chance Carl's name is listed on the drum credits for that CD.

That said, Carl approached this DVD with a laser focus to teach you something that you can actually use. He walks methodically through the seven basic grooves found in the top songs of the church. He instructs you, groove by groove, in not only the fundamentals and techniques, but the terminology and the application into which those grooves will fit in songs that are meant for worship. There are a number of worship resources sprouting up from skilled players, but none from as seasoned of a professional instructor as Carl. This DVD doesn't attempt to add superfluous fluff, but focuses keenly on absolutely making you successful at locking in to these 7 essential grooves. The chapter list includes these main items:

• chapter 3 - 8th Note Feel
• chapter 4 - Alternative Rock (8th with 16th note fillers) - ghost notes
• chapter 5 - 16 note (train groove)
• chapter 6 - 8th & 16th Note (ballads)
• chapter 7 - 6/8 time, felt in 2 (majestic)
• chapter 8 - shuffle/swing feel (triplets minus the middle) - and hip hop!
• chapter 9 - odd time signatures (3/4, 5/4 etc) - hymns
• chapter 10 - prayer... "prayer for the saints" on drums (a solo)

As a worship leader, and a former drumming instructor myself, I can't say enough about the importance of the points that Carl makes. Every worship leader who wonders why their drummer seems to drift off beat, speed up going into the chorus, or lose time during instrumental parts should be thanking God for Carl Albrecht. Because, while it is painful to have those situations occurring in your local church band, at least now you have a remedy that can actually help your drummer be the timekeeper you need him/her to be.

Drummers and worship leaders, I can't urge you enough to consider getting this core drumming learning tool. Check it out online at :

http://carlalbrecht.com/store/drum-grooves-for-worship/

In the rhythm,
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

The era of the DVD has arrived. This has become more evident by the number of various products found in DVD format. And the area of worship music has actually been a recent strong adopter of the digital video format. From iWORSHIP brand products by Integrity, to great live worship videos from Hillsong Music to artist worship concerts with Michael W. Smith and Third Day, praise and worship has gone digital with the major releases. Now worship leader/songwriter Paul Baloche has blazed the trail by presenting the first edition in a series of instructional DVDs for worship leaders and worship teams. This first DVD is entitled "Worship Styles".

While the DVD is an independently produced effort by Paul Baloche, the videography on this DVD is top notch. A nicely set 6-camera presentation, with excellent audio, transitions, effects and edits, this DVD is far above normal indie video efforts. Introducing the main content is a brief talk with Paul, as he strolls down the street, coffee cup in hand. And this really sets the mood for the presentation of this DVD- you are invited into a relaxed, but intentional session with Paul and "the band" bringing you fruther along on your trek as worship team.

The main content of "Worship Styles" is a worship team teaching tool that walks through a single song in no less than 6 different stylings: traditional, celtic, reggae, rock, country and R&B. A jazz rendering is also added to the end of the DVD, but not discussed at length. The DVD works this way: first, the song is played through once in the style; then Paul Baloche discusses the main concepts of the style. Finally, each instrumentalist breaks down the individual parts of the song in that style, describing and playing the part for all to see and play along with. The instruments covered are bass guitar, drums, keyboards, electric guitar and acoustic guitar. Each instrumentalist is an extensively accomplished musician, who talks the language and plays the grooves with precision and meaning.

It would be unrealistic to try to match the level of musicians presented in this DVD with your local worship team, but fortunately, that is not the goal of this instruction. Instead, the musicians play precise stylings that most mid-level players can copy and practice to make their own. The beauty of this DVD is that Paul taps in on something all of us have known for a long time- don't tell us how to play something, show us. Nearly all of the garage band musicians out there learned (at least in part) by watching someone else play. The weakness of some traditional training is the "book and classroom" methods that don't incorporate extensive amounts of "show-and-tell". Paul brings us some digital music mentors in this video, letting us sit in on sessions on how to construct (one instrument at a time) a song into the style of your choice.

Let's be clear, you won't learn basic music theory or simple "how to play your instrument" lessons on this DVD. But you will take the essential rudiments that each instrument needs to compose a consistent, polished sound for a given style. For example, drummer Carl Albrecht gives precise example and instruction on how to lay down the two variations of country beats needed in two parts of a country style rendition of "All Hail The Power of Jesus Name". After that, bassist Don Harris explains and lays down the bass parts. And so on, with the keyboards, electric guitar and the rhythm acoustic guitar. Each style is walked through in this same fashion, giving the video consistency and content. Throughout the transition from style to style, Paul also talks candidly about his struggles as a worship leader in a local church to use various styles. The talk is light, but meaningful, and a refreshing bridge across the "meat" of the musical examples laid out in this presentation. Paul and his coffee penchant return as the DVD is concluded by a lengthy black and white interview with Southern California pastor Bob Branch. In that discussion, Paul and Bob settle the melee for worship leaders and pastors on how they can come together and work as a team for the good of their local churches.

If you are wanting to sample some of the DVD, we have created a short online preview for you of the Worship Styles DVD Preview [ Windows Media | Realplayer ] . Click on the format you prefer to see the preview.

I liked this DVD so much, I watched it over and over to see if I had missed any obvious flaws or gaps in the content or production- to make sure my lauds wouldn't be misplaced. I could find any flaws. What will be evident to anyone leading a contemporary worship team (drums, bass, piano, guitars) is the excellent encouragement this will bring to you and your band. Not only do you learn the proper rudiments for the style, but (as a leader) the language for communicating that to your musicians. Giving an Editor's Choice to "Worship Styles" DVD is a no-brainer, as this product blazes the trail to an era of digital training resources which many will, no doubt, follow. And as they do, they would do well to follow in Paul's example by using not only top quality people, but excellent production in the project. Congrats on a great resource, Paul!

Product Link:  Music Styles With Paul Baloche Modern Worship Series (DVD)

Review by Kim Gentes