Praying for a Drummer...

[worshiptheKing]

...but in the mean time...

Has anyone ever used a drum sequencer or drum machine in the absence of a drummer?

The worship team I just started working with does not have a drummer. Actually we have a very elemenatary band, keys, acoustic and bass. Last week we had a special service and I beefed up the music a bit. I got a friend of mine to come and play drums. He is committed to another church but was willing to schedule it and help out. Anyway- the drum kit added sooooooo much to the music we did. Some older Hillsongs stuff and other contemporary stuff. I am doing some of the same music this week without the drums and it is just not the same.

Back to my question. Ever use a drum sequencer or drum machine? If so how do I get around changes in tempo from song to song or change in time signature (4/4 > 6/8) or ritards in the music? Any help or suggestions would be great. Let me say thi as well. I have thought about the djembe or hand drums, no one on my present team outside of the key parts could do that.

[twc_admin]

I'd recommend checking out Ableton Live - it's software based, and you can add the extra instruments, too ... there are some threads about it here.

[free_by_grace]

We have had the misfortune of being short a drummer several times recently. I have heard great things about Ableton Live, and it could probably handle the transitions and rit's pretty well.

We have recorded several drum loops to the Korg Triton or the Yamaha Motif keyboards. It's a little cheesy to do this, but when you're strapped for a drummer it does better than going without.

I would absolutely encourage you to have some of your long-standing musicians try out their hand on djembe or congas during practice... because musicians tend to have a little rhythm in their bones. There just might be somebody who could step in when needed. I'm a bassist, but I like to toy around with tapping out rhythms when I don't have an instrument in front of me, and there have been several times where I have stepped in for shaker, congas or djembe for portions of a song, and it has been pretty fun to step into that role when needed.

[russhutto]

We used a loop AND a live drummer this past sunday.

Oddly enough, because of just a TOUGH week, and because our lead guitar player is out eagerly waiting on a new baby to arrive, we are down to a bare bones line-up!

Me on keys or acoustic, a bass player, and a drummer.

This week it ended up being just me (due to a no-show bass player) and the drummer.

Fortunately, I had pre-planned to do this loop thing. It worked cool. Set up my little lap top hit go and rocked it. The live drummer played a very simple (yet sync'd groove) and I pumped out the keys parts (while trying to cover the bass as well).

It was fun. We did the song "Glorious" by Karen Clark. It kind of had a "hip-hop/gospel/house party" feel to it. Very fun!

[El Ben]

:( I totally feel you on the whole praying for a drummer thing. I've been doing that for more than a couple of months now.