Jonnie Brown

Have you ever thought about your process of learning a song? If you had to learn a song by next week, do you know what you would do to "learn" it? I ask, because I'm supposed to learn a lot of songs for a youth camp that's quickly approaching, and I thought I would just share with you what I'm doing to learn them in a creative way. If you're a professional, (or trying to be) you will lose your job very quickly if you show up not knowing the songs you're playing. They won't ask you to play again. That's the professional world. So I would like to encourage you (and myself) to have some professionalism and at least learn the songs before you show up on Sunday. So here's what I do to learn a song. To learn anything, you have to spend time with it. You shouldn't expect to play a song like you've been playing it your whole life when in reality, you've only spent an hour learning the song.  Personally, I see the song le...

Photo by  Alexander Andrews "I feel like the chorus is missing something." "The intro feels really fast." "This song just needs more energy." "Can you do something else right here? I don't like how this feels." - I've heard all of these remarks from different worship leaders. While comments like these are a little helpful, there is still a lot of room for misinterpretation. It seems like that's what drummers have become: interpreters. Let's take a moment to understand the worship leader's perspective. They don't play drums. They don't know what you do back there. Like anyone else, all they know is how it feels. They are very aware of what vibes the band is putting out. When you do something different than the recording or from what you normally do, it feels different. They may not know what you specifically did differently, but they notice something felt different. In general, worship leaders see and think a...

You've got the job. You're the drummer. Now what? What do you do? What is the role of a drummer? You might be a drummer, you might work with a drummer, or you might just know a drummer. Whatever the case is, the question remains: What is the role of a drummer? and w hy are drummers so cool? Well, I can't answer that last one, but together we can examine what I believe the role of a drummer is in church. If you see yourself as the drummer of a worship band, I have some news for you. You have a greater role that's more important than being just a drummer. Y ou're role is to lead others to worship a holy God . There is a lot of mental energy, including coordination of numerous limbs, involved in playing drums, so it can be very easy to forget why you are playing them in the first place. So how do you lead others to worship? If your role is to lead others to worship God, playing the coolest, flashiest fill you know how to play every 8 bars is probably not ...

Photo by  Reynier Carl Here’s what normally happens to me. Maybe you’ve experienced this too: You’ve got a couple days before Sunday, and your worship leader sends out the songs for the weekend. What should any good musician do? Listen to the recording. The recording is always right. We’re trying to sound like recording because the recording sounds good. If everyone just learned their instrument’s part on the recording, we’d sound awesome. You show up to rehearsal with your part learned to a “T” and what do you know? It doesn’t really sound like the recording. You think, “if only so and so learned their part we’d sound amazing (like the recording)” or maybe “if only we had another person to play this one part, then we’d sound legit (like the recording).” What if that wasn’t the solution? What if you’re the one to blame? What if “the recording” is wrong? Whoah. How can the recording be wrong? I mean, it sounds great after all! Well, here are 3 reasons why I think it’...