One concept I have strongly emphasized and will continue to emphasize in my seminars and blog articles is that, praise music is a genre unto itself with its own set of distinctives and nuances. If a musician wants to play praise music, then it is up to him or her to learn what this genre requires. (I would apply this same principle to the other genres as well.) On the same token, it is up to those musicians who have the knowledge and experience in the praise genre to teach the younger and less experienced musicians what those distinctives and nuances are. Among all the instructional DVDs for praise drummers that I have seen so far, the 2008 instructional DVD by Carl Albrecht entitled, Drum Grooves For Worship does that best job of teaching praise music distinctives and nuances for drummers that I have seen thus far.
Before producing this DVD, Carl spent several hours doing research on the top 100 CCLI songs and sub-dividing those songs into 7 distinct groove patterns. In addition to this DVD, Carl also published his research observations in writing and gives a much more detailed account of each song that he listened too. These observations are available on pdf that you can down load from his website, http://carlalbrecht.com/wp-content/uploads/Drum-Grooves-For-Worship.pdf. In this pdf, Carl not only gives you the different groove patterns, but he indicates the ideal tempo for each of the songs, as well as the kick patterns for the verses and choruses. This pdf could be used as a cheat sheet for those younger, inexperienced drummers who are learning the different praise songs.
Here are the 7 grooves that Carl has identified:
Groove #1 – Straight 8th note feel (17)
Groove #2 – 8th note w/ filler 16ths - Alternative Rock Feel (26)
Groove #3 – 16th note “Train feel” – Rock or Latin (20)
Groove #4 - 8th &/or 16th note feel in Ballad Style (27)
Groove #5 - 6/8 Majestic Feel (7)
Groove #6 – Shuffles or Swing feel – Triplet minus the middle* (1)
Groove #7 - Odd Time Grooves – . - 5/4 - etc. etc.(3)
Keep in mind that a praise drummer needs to learn as many different groove patterns as possible in order to be as versatile as possible. However, a good praise drummer should learn to master these seven grooves first and then move on from there.
Another thing to keep in mind is that this list of groove patterns are the top groove patterns of CCLI’s top 100 for 2008. I am quite certain that in a few years there will be new songs in CCLI’s top 100 that weren’t there in 2008. My best guess is that the first five groove patterns will more than likely still hold their existing places. I am not so sure about the last two, we will just have to wait and see.
As for the DVD itself, I found Carl to be very articulate and telegenic. He conveyed all of his points very well and all of his points were very relevant for praise drummers. Carl demonstrated groove patterns covering well over a dozen different songs. One thing I found very interesting is that Carl did not use any instrumentalists to accompany him while demonstrating the different groove patterns. Instead, he sang or hummed the songs as he played the grooves. This is not necessarily a bad thing. In Carl’s case, he happens to be a fairly decent vocalist in addition to being a good drummer and percussionist. So for him, the singing and humming actually worked.
In addition to teaching the seven basic grooves patterns of praise music, Carl also gave a lot of practical advice for praise drummers in regards to developing good practice habits. Drum Grooves For Worship is an excellent teaching video for all praise drummers at any level. I highly recommend it, I was not disappointed with my purchase of this product.
Showing posts with label Carl Albrecht. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carl Albrecht. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
ARTICLE REVIEW: My Response To Carl Albrecht
On June 28, 2011, Carl published a piece on his web site entitled, The Calling of a Worship Drummer. http://carlalbrecht.com/category/worship-drumming/. In this article Carl encouraged praise musicians to take their spiritual office seriously by urging them to develop and hone their musical skills and to grow spiritually at the same time.
Carl cited five very relevant scriptures to support his points:
• REV. 5:10 “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God.”
• II CHRON. 34: 12 – 13 “The Levites – all who were skilled in playing musical instruments – had charge of the laborers and supervised all the workers from job to job.”
• I CHRON. 25: 7 ““…all of them trained in music for the Lord…”
• I SAMUEL 10: 5 – 11 “…they will be coming down from a high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps … and they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.”
• I SAMUEL 16:23 “…David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.”
Carl also indirectly cited two scriptures without giving their references that were also very relevant to his premise:
• “The Lord truly inhabits the praises of His people.” (Psa 22:3)
• “He said He will be found when we search for Him with all of our heart.” (Jer 29:13)
It is basically a good article. The only issue that I have with the article is that Carl needs to get his terminology straight. In his 1,400 word article, Carl mentions the word “worship” in its various forms 20 times. Or 21 if you include the picture at the beginning of the article that shows Carl holding his drums sticks in his right while raised in the air, with the caption below reading, “Carl worshipping.”
Carl has the same misconception about worship that most Evangelical Christians have. Praise and worship are two completely different concepts. The problem is, most Evangelicals have difficulty making the distinction between the two and they end up using the pop cultural definition of worship as opposed to the Biblical definition. Take the photo of Carl at the top of his article. One raising their hand or hands is an act of praise, not worship. Here are just two scriptures that support the concept of praise being manifested through the lifting of hands:
• Ps 63:4 “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.”
• Ps 134:2 “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.”
Praise is an activity based concept and the scriptures teach that praise can be manifested through: giving of offerings, thanksgiving, or a verbal declaration of praise; and/or by shouting, dancing, lifting of hands, singing and playing musical instruments. Those are all activities. This is why I refer to myself as a praise drummer as opposed to a worship drummer. There is no verse in the Bible that reads, “lift your hands in worship.”
Worship on the other hand is a posture based concept and not an activity based concept as praise is. This is where most Evangelicals go wrong. They associate worship as an activity and it’s not. The scriptures teach that worship is a posture and an attitude of bowing. The notion that worship is defined by lifting hands and music is simply NOT BIBLICAL. I challenge anyone to show me one scripture that defines music any other manifestation of praise of as worship.
Here are just two scriptures that well illustrate how praise and worship are different:
• II Ch 20: 18 & 19 Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord. Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.
• Ne 8:6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Some of you might be thinking,… “Gosh Matthew, aren’t you being a little nit-picky here? After all, you just said that Carl’s article was good, so why are you splitting hairs over the semantics of worship?” If you were thinking that, let respond to you this way.
Suppose you visited a church where the Ushers pass out the bread and wine after the Pastor says, “will the ushers please come forward to take the offering.” Then, the Ushers pass the offering plates after the Pastors says, “we will now partake of Holy communion.” I think calling communion, “the taking of the offering” and the taking of the offering, “communion” is just a ridiculous as calling singing and music “worship.”
So my point is we need to call things what they actually are and we as Christians should be using the Biblical definitions of those terms if a Biblical definition is applicable. So, if Carl were to go back and revise his article by replacing all the references to worship with praise, then his article would be even better than it is now. It is as simple as that.
BTW, I just recently bought Carl’s instructional DVD, Drum Grooves for Worship and later this Summer, I will publish a review on it. I will not make an issue of how Carl used the word worship in my upcoming review since I have already done that here. Suffice it to say, aside for the worship issue, I loved the DVD immensely, so you can expect my review to be more on the positive side.
Carl cited five very relevant scriptures to support his points:
• REV. 5:10 “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God.”
• II CHRON. 34: 12 – 13 “The Levites – all who were skilled in playing musical instruments – had charge of the laborers and supervised all the workers from job to job.”
• I CHRON. 25: 7 ““…all of them trained in music for the Lord…”
• I SAMUEL 10: 5 – 11 “…they will be coming down from a high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps … and they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.”
• I SAMUEL 16:23 “…David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.”
Carl also indirectly cited two scriptures without giving their references that were also very relevant to his premise:
• “The Lord truly inhabits the praises of His people.” (Psa 22:3)
• “He said He will be found when we search for Him with all of our heart.” (Jer 29:13)
It is basically a good article. The only issue that I have with the article is that Carl needs to get his terminology straight. In his 1,400 word article, Carl mentions the word “worship” in its various forms 20 times. Or 21 if you include the picture at the beginning of the article that shows Carl holding his drums sticks in his right while raised in the air, with the caption below reading, “Carl worshipping.”
Carl has the same misconception about worship that most Evangelical Christians have. Praise and worship are two completely different concepts. The problem is, most Evangelicals have difficulty making the distinction between the two and they end up using the pop cultural definition of worship as opposed to the Biblical definition. Take the photo of Carl at the top of his article. One raising their hand or hands is an act of praise, not worship. Here are just two scriptures that support the concept of praise being manifested through the lifting of hands:
• Ps 63:4 “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.”
• Ps 134:2 “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.”
Praise is an activity based concept and the scriptures teach that praise can be manifested through: giving of offerings, thanksgiving, or a verbal declaration of praise; and/or by shouting, dancing, lifting of hands, singing and playing musical instruments. Those are all activities. This is why I refer to myself as a praise drummer as opposed to a worship drummer. There is no verse in the Bible that reads, “lift your hands in worship.”
Worship on the other hand is a posture based concept and not an activity based concept as praise is. This is where most Evangelicals go wrong. They associate worship as an activity and it’s not. The scriptures teach that worship is a posture and an attitude of bowing. The notion that worship is defined by lifting hands and music is simply NOT BIBLICAL. I challenge anyone to show me one scripture that defines music any other manifestation of praise of as worship.
Here are just two scriptures that well illustrate how praise and worship are different:
• II Ch 20: 18 & 19 Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord. Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.
• Ne 8:6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Some of you might be thinking,… “Gosh Matthew, aren’t you being a little nit-picky here? After all, you just said that Carl’s article was good, so why are you splitting hairs over the semantics of worship?” If you were thinking that, let respond to you this way.
Suppose you visited a church where the Ushers pass out the bread and wine after the Pastor says, “will the ushers please come forward to take the offering.” Then, the Ushers pass the offering plates after the Pastors says, “we will now partake of Holy communion.” I think calling communion, “the taking of the offering” and the taking of the offering, “communion” is just a ridiculous as calling singing and music “worship.”
So my point is we need to call things what they actually are and we as Christians should be using the Biblical definitions of those terms if a Biblical definition is applicable. So, if Carl were to go back and revise his article by replacing all the references to worship with praise, then his article would be even better than it is now. It is as simple as that.
BTW, I just recently bought Carl’s instructional DVD, Drum Grooves for Worship and later this Summer, I will publish a review on it. I will not make an issue of how Carl used the word worship in my upcoming review since I have already done that here. Suffice it to say, aside for the worship issue, I loved the DVD immensely, so you can expect my review to be more on the positive side.
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