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Know Your Space

By Philip Hendrickson

If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent…For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” 1 Corinthians 14: 30, 33 ESV

Have you ever heard of musical space? Think of a song as a painting on a canvas. Each color gets a certain amount of space on the canvas, but no single color covers the whole picture. Each musician in a band is like a color on the canvas. We each get a certain amount of space to do our thing, and when everything meshes together the end result is (hopefully) a beautiful image that conveys information and emotions to the viewer.

Here's the catch: we musicians have to be careful not to bleed over into each other’s space. We have to learn where the sounds of our instrument intrude on the space of another instrument. For example, the bass drum makes low-pitched tones in the same range as the bass guitar. We can play the bass drum in a way that either complements or competes with the bassist. Even worse, we can play so much bass drum—by using constant blast beats or a huge, booming sound—that we don’t leave any sonic room for the bassist at all.

Consider the snare drum. It is usually very high in the mix, possibly only second to the lead vocals, because it is a reference point and heartbeat for many songs. But that means that if we play many loud beats on the snare, we are not leaving space for other instruments to make interesting contributions to the music.

Cymbals can take up a LOT of space, because they cover a wide spectrum of frequencies and can ring for a long time after being hit. It is very important to learn a variety of techniques for playing cymbals, so you can call on their color and emotion while leaving space for everyone else. Learn when to let cymbals ring out and when to choke a cymbal with your hand or a deadstick stroke. In the middle of making music on stage is NOT the time to worry about getting fingerprints on your cymbals! Clean them up after the show if you want, but during the song do what is best for the music.

One more point: the sound level of the song is like the size of the canvas. If a song is loud and full of energy, everyone in the band has lots of room to make sounds that work together. If the song is quiet and introspective, every member of the band needs to work in a smaller sonic space. It is just as cool to be able to make an interesting musical contribution at low volume or with sparse notes as it is to make a massive, triumphant, joyful noise. Don’t limit yourself to only conveying big, loud emotions at the drum set. We have a wide array of tools at our disposal; tell the whole story!

If you are not sure how much sonic space you are taking up in your band, talk to the other players. Talk to the leader. Ask them if your playing is making it easier or harder for them to contribute their part to the music. Then learn, adapt, and grow. Keep learning forever. If we stop learning new things the music gets boring, and, chances are, we will stop getting called to play with other musicians.

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