About


Hey, I'm Jonnie Brown. My mission is to spread my optimistic passion for music to as many musicians as possible, equipping them with accurate knowledge, useful skills, and confidence to bless the church and bring God glory.

 To accomplish my mission, I direct music and play drums for the Craig Rigney Band, I teach private lessons from my home in Chicago, and I started this blog.

 I've been playing drums in a church setting since 2006. I received my Bachelor of Music Education from Missouri Baptist University in 2016, and since then I've worked with a handful of different high school drum lines, fine arts schools, and community colleges.

 I hope you enjoy my blog, and if you really enjoy it, I hope you subscribe and share it. If you want me to give you some pointers and tips that are specific to you, I can give you one-on-one lessons in my studio in Chicago. Contact me at the bottom of this page to request private lessons.

Popular posts from this blog

Behind the Shield: Drum Shields

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It's difficult to have a blog about drumming in church without talking about drum shields. In fact, I'd like to point out that churches are the only people discussing drum shields. If you've ever attended a concert at a venue that's not a church, you'll notice the drummer doesn't have a shield around him. Also, when I googled "drum shield" I found links that cater to churches and worship on the first page. There's nothing wrong with trying to control stage volume. I'm all for it, actually. But is a drum shield the right solution to control the volume of the drums? And what does a drum shield do anyway? For those of you who don't know, drum shields are those plexiglass walls that form a half circle around the perimeter the drums. The idea behind them is pretty simple. Without a drum shield, the drummer strikes the drum; the sound travels in the line of sight of the listener; the listener says, "Wow, that's loud." With t...
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Why "The Recording" Is Wrong

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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’...
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My Stick Shtick: Navigating Stick Choice In a Sea Of Sticks

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Why on earth are there so many sticks to choose from? And what makes them all different? You want to know? - me too. This is a topic I have been hardcore exploring lately. Here is what I've learned. I think it's important to define different parts of the drumstick (as nerdy as that is) so that you will understand what I'm talking about when I reference it. So take a good look at this diagram of a drumstick. Yeah. That says butt. There are two main reasons why people buy certain types of sticks: 1. how it sounds 2. how it feels Let's dive into the factors that affect sound . Diameter/Thickness - Generally, the thicker the stick, the more power and projection it has. Length - Longer sticks have more torque or leverage (I'm not sure what the right science term is here) but think about it. The tip of a longer stick will travel faster with the same wrist motion of a shorter stick, thus, giving a louder sound (and a different rebound). Tip Shape - This is a big deal. I...
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The Gift Of Confidence

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There's a difference in my playing when I give myself permission to "be the drummer." That probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense. What I mean is allowing myself to be the guy who knows what he's doing back there. The guy that knows how to best play his parts. The guy who practiced with the band. The guy who knows where the song is going before it goes there. What is that? It's confidence and authority. I like to call it "being the drummer." So back to what I'm trying to say. There's a difference in my playing when I give myself permission to "be the drummer." I say "permission" because only I have the power to grant that permission to myself. Well why wouldn't I grant myself that permission? Isn't that an obvious thing to do? Well, I'll tell you why that doesn't happen sometimes. If I didn't learn my parts, I don't have my own permission to play like I confidently know them. If I don't know...
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The Missing Link: Why

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Musicians, great and terrible, all play what they think sounds good on their instruments. But there's a difference between o.k. players and great players even though they're both doing what they think sounds good. Sure, skill, preparedness, technique, and experience all factor in that difference, but there's still something really small but really important missing. It just so happens to be something I have found to be incredibly difficult to explain. Simply put, it's why. We all ask ourselves, "What would sound good here?" but excellent musicians take it one step further and ask, "Why would this sound good?" Have you ever bothered to ask yourself why the thing you want to play sounds good? If not, you're in trouble. I love how there are so many types of music. You can get the same song to sound very different by playing it in a different style. With all the different genres of music out there, all of the different artists and songs, each of us a...
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