#drumshields

[watchthedj]

Claptone - Live @ Elrow Horroween, Drumsheds London 2023

[aarondrum]

Drum Shields- The Real Story

Somewhere down the line people gave up on drummers; gave up on their ability to be musicians. They decided the drumset was too loud an instrument and must be controlled. Not just controlled but isolated from the rest of the band and in extreme circumstances the rest of the room alltogether! What happened? I remember when I first started playing the drums there was no such thing as drum shields in churches. Drums were just drums and did not need any isolation to function musically.  Today, it is hard to find a church that does not have these ugly plexi glass cages around the drums. Is the music we play that much louder today? Has the drumming community declined as musicians. Maybe…but that’s not an excuse. Do drummers no longer have any personal responsibility for how their instrument fits into a venue?

I am not a fan of drum shields. The last several years I had given in and decided to take on the status quo. I’m ready to take on that battle now. Drum shields are commonly believed to be necessary to any church situation. They ‘solve’ the problem of the drums being too loud for the room and bleeding into other mics. I reject this belief. I believe that not only do drum shields not solve the problem of loud drums they actually create other problems. This has caused worship ministries to spend enormous amounts of money solving these other problems.

Here is a list of the problems I see being created by drum shields.

- Drum shields don’t actually make the drums any quieter. Often drummers actually play louder than they should when they see that a shield is in front of them.  This is compounded by the fact that drummers need in-ear monitors in order to hear the rest of the band.

- Sound is reflected backwards which then bounces off the walls and ceiling and actually muddies the sound.  This causes the sound engineers to then purchase absorption panels to place inside the shield and all around the shield.

- Mic bleed through the drums’ mics is increased.

- Looks terrible on stage.

- Drum shields are expensive.

- Tells the drummer that they are unable to play with any nuance or sensitivity to the situation at hand.

- Relieves the drummer of the responsibility to manage their sound. Prohibits creativity.  

- Doesn’t let the drummer think outside the box on how to play the song appropriately.

I think one thing that will help drummers and other musicians play appropriately is the realization that a particular song does not HAVE to be played the way it was recorded.  So many of us see videos or hear records of worship teams playing in huge arenas or large churches and feel that the song needs to be played that same way no matter what the venue.  This is just simply not true.  The venue that the song is being performed in has to be a factor in the drummers approach.  Some of my most surprisingly fulfilling performances came about because I had to rethink what I needed to play to support the song in a way that was appropriate to the venue.