A couple of weeks ago I was at the 1st ever Psalm Drummers Summer School, held in St George’s School Windsor. 3 days of worship, frantic drumming, training and friendship and it was nice to escape the rain in Ireland and head for warmer climes!. (Why is it always raining every time I fly from Ireland???).

The emphasis was very much on practical hands on training. I found this very helpful as I really went wanting to improve my technique. There were 3 strands:

1. Drum kit course
2. Percussion
3. Children’s course

The quality of the facilitators was top notch with such people as Ed Freitas, Bono Hodge, Calum Rees, raul D’Oliveira, Stew Smith (ex Delirious) and others.

I was on the Percussion course, which was led by Mike Simpson of Inspire Works. This was awesome especially the session on using percussion for effect (as opposed to laying down a groove), ie. using instruments such as cymbals, shakers, tambourines, etc.

At the end of this Mike read out Psalm 23 line by line and we had to respond by playing in a way that reflects that line. It was quite remarkable that this sounded good as with about 10-15 people there it’s likely that each will have a different interpretation of each line. What I liked was that it was possible to have different instruments playing at different volumes and strengths and it didn’t sound a mess.

For example, verse 4 says:

“Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.”

Some people were banging a frame drum with increasing volume, symbolizing a victorious proclamation, while others were gently playing a shaker seemingly displaying a quiet confidence in God’s promise. Awesome creative stuff!!

Ed Freitas’ session on warm ups, sticks and heads was very welcome as not being a kit drummer I confess I haven’t a clue about how to even hold a drum stick! I didn’t realise that you needed to do warm ups before playing. You can even apply that to percussion instruments so that’s something practical to take away.

One of the highlights was the Strike the Drum Celebration in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Around 50 drummers gathered to play along dancers from Movement in Worship. Suffice to say that something like that has never happened there before! I could physically feel the ground shake and rumble as we played. No idea what all the tourists thought of this. It’s a shame we were not allowed to record anything there (apparently it is illegal to film the tomb of a dead Monarch). From there we played in procession from the Castle through the town.

Well I could say much more but if you are reading this I would recommend that if you get the chance you go along next year and see for yourself and learn from some top class drummers!!

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Date: Saturday 16th August
Venue: High Kirk Presbyterian Church, 65-71 Thomas Street, Ballymena, BT43 6A (click for Google Map)
Time: 10am - 12noon (performance will be in the evening)
Facilitator: Calum Rees (Kathryn Scott, Brian Doerksen, Vineyard Music, TOTPs)

As part of Fuel 08 in Ballymena, Psalm Drummers will be putting on a free kit workshop for drummers involved in playing in church or those who would like to know more about playing drums in worship. It will be facilitated by Calum Rees.

Calum has a great many CD releases to his credit including Vineyard albums ‘Hungry’, ‘Come Now Is The Time’ and ‘Surrender’. He was for many years at South West London Vineyard, but now lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife Joyce. He is a drum teacher and session player by profession often working in the mainstream recording, touring and doing TV dates. He is also a long time member of Psalm Drummers and has been a regular clinician and workshop facilitator.

It will be a fully hands on workshop and all participants will be expected to take part. Also as part of the Fuel 08 main stage, Psalm Drummers will be performing and I wish to invite you to join with us for this performance.

What do I need?

You will need to bring a small (4 or 5 piece) drum kit, cymbals and sticks. A strap to carry a snare, floor tom or djembé (if you have one) for the evening performance.

If you do not have a kit available to bring but would still like to attend please get in touch. Also if you wish to play percussion (djembé, congas etc) you are more than welcome, however the workshop will be catered for kit players.

Please let us know if you wish to come as numbers are limited. Go to www.facebook.com/pages/Psalm-Drummers-Northern-Ireland/17217154509

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I noticed that since posting about the rally at the Houses of Parliament last year to protest against abortion a few people have searched this blog for a list of anti-abortion groups. So here are a few that may be worth contacting for resources, campaigning strategies etc. Some aren’t dedicated to abortion issues alone and have a broader scope in tackling other social and moral issues. There may be more but these are the ones I would recommend as I have used their resources for campaigning.

• Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)
  
• The Christian Institute
• CARE (Christian Action Research and Education)

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I’ve just been to see the second Narnia film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

If you haven’t seen it I’d recommend you do go and see it. Don’t wait for the DVD. Go and enjoy the full effects of surround sound at high volume to get all the gut wrenching booms and echoing blasts of horns. If, like me, you’ve never read the book you’ll probably wonder what the heck the first scene is all about. Without any warning the movie starts with the very loud screams of a woman giving birth! The characters all look and sound Spanish from a Renaissance period and for one minute I really thought someone had switched the video reels.

The story line is good and has a lot of intrigue and twists in it that I liked. My daughter (who has read all the books) tells me that some stuff has been added, such as the White Witch making a brief appearance, but all in all it’s really good stuff with some very nice computer generated images and very good acting. Some bits were so Lord of the rings it’s unreal. (But then Tolkien and CS Lewis were good mates, but that was way before CGI and modern film tech). For instance, the bit where the trees waken up and start defending Narnia.

Oh, and it’s 2 hours and 24 minutes so it’s good value for money considering the price of the ticket. As one local newspaper described it, it’s a ‘bum numbing 2 hours and 24 minutes long”.

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