Bruce

@Joshua Thanks for the input. I think you've nailed it. If I'm not showing up prepared I'm surely not in any kind of position to even hope that anything will improve.

Well said @Jeffrey

@Noel Again, we are in full agreement. My church is my church and I'm not going to let this issue dominate my thinking, or any create strife. I will continue to respond to the work the Lord has put in front of me, be as supportive as I can be and yet suggest (at appropriate times) that we are capable of more. Doing that while not accepting less than my best is the challenge. Thanks for the conversation Noel. It means great deal to have some communication with a fellow drummer on the topic. Have a great day!

@Noel I'm in full agreement regarding service to God. Having said that, if it is for God, shouldn't it more reflect our best efforts, rather than just whatever we can throw together with the least amount of preparation we can get away with? All the choirs I've ever been associated with rehearse, rehearse, rehearse - shouldn't praise teams do the same?

Please tell me if your praise team rehearses and how frequently. If you only meet for a run-through on Sunday morning, please indicate that's the case. Where I worship we rarely rehearse and usually meet Sunday mornings for a 20 minute run through.

@Noel Now that you've shared your thoughts, I'm thinking this situation may be a lot more normal than it should be; with praise teams essentially winging it.

I'm come to the realization that the fills I prepare at home for the worship service rarely work when I get to church on Sunday. I pick up a generic "leader's guide" at church every Friday after work; (that's typically the earliest that it's available). Then I go home and work things up for Sunday. I'm pretty familiar with the book of music that we use, so I'm able to drive the verses and chorus pretty well. My problem comes during the transitions and fill opportunities. I can work something out at home and when I go to use that fill, it just doesn't seem to work in the acoustical environment we play in. The sanctuary is old school hard surfaces and was designed for organ & choir. When I play a busier fill it seems to just get muddy and I feel that it's too much for the room. Ideally, we'd rehearse mid-week and I'd have some time to road test some different ideas. However, even if we did, the entire feel of the song changes when you get an entire congregation singing with you and you need to make sure they know where the One is. Some of this is just venting, but anything anyone with a similar experience would like to share would be greatly appreciated.

@Joshua one picture is with a thousand words. http://www.lidwishsoulutions.com/ultra_tones.asp

@Tony I agree with everything Tim says. I'd like to add my opinion, and this is only my opinion. To me it seems that when playing on a pad the more mass/weight a stick has the easier it will bounce/rebound. When I first started playing in elementary school, (back in the stone age - haha), they always started us on 2Bs which are pretty beefy sticks. I think they did that so that we could develop a sense of rebound. After elementary school the drum teaching community (there were 13 snare drummers in my Jr. High School band, so that was a pretty big sample size) started getting a bit looser as far as directing our choice of sticks went. By that time I'd developed at least some technique and could get the rebound I needed out of a lighter stick. I've only had one drum student. She came to her first lessons with light sticks and was having difficulty getting rebound. I gave her a pair of 5Bs and she liked them a lot more. We were only working on a pad at that time, but her ability to play doubles immediately improved when she used the heavier sticks. But, heavy or light, find something that feels good in your hand. Again, Tim's right - go to a music store and road test several pair.

Last time I bought a cymbal (online) I noticed that pretty much all the drummers demoing the cymbals were using Vic Firth 5A. So I asked the sales guy if he could throw in a pair of them to sweeten the deal. (If you look carefully you'll find them in the picture.) But, that's why there's more than one flavor of ice cream - it's all good, but taste differs.

@Joshua The sticks at the lower left corner are UltraTones from Lidwish Solutions. They are definitely quiet - you get almost no volume at all out of a ride cymbal. They are marketed as a noise solution. I've seen some videos where a drummer is managing to get a lot more tone than I ever could get out of them. They are a separate breed from sticks or rods. I recently tried a pair of maple Zildjian 7A (red dipped shaft in the picture). I loved the feel of them on a pad and on my drums, but they are a bit soft in the tip and I don't get a lot of attach on my ride cymbals. I wish I'd have bought the smaller broomsticks; the big ones are a bit much for traditional grip. LOL

@Julia I really like the Regal Tip Jazz and use them most of the time. The Zildjian John Riley's are great, but the tips wear too quickly for me - and I'm not a hard hitter. If you ever get into brushes, I'd recommend the Vic Firth Heritage Brush (HB). For softer rock and train beats I like the Regal Tip Fat Cats. Funny, from my late teens and into my mid-20's (when I was most active playing) I used Regal Tip 5B Nylon Tips- that was it, no muss no fuss. If you do go looking for "the" stick, I've found that, at least for me, the most important factor is the length of the stick. I gravitate towards 16". I've used shorter and longer, but they never felt quite right. They can be really thin or thick, but if they're 16" I can rely on the balance and feel.

@Tim B. I've pretty much settled into Regal Tip Jazz as my go-to for playing at church and practice. I really liked the Zildjian John Riley more, because of the great sound the acorn tip gave me on my ride cymbals, but the tips wore down so fast that I just couldn't justify using them for all occasions. My favorite was the ProMark Carl Palmer signature. but they changed wood sources, or something, and the wood was softer so that the tips of the new pairs just didn't give me enough attack on my rides. I've finally come to the point that I'm done shopping. If I don't have it in my bag now, I probably don't need it.

Hi @Brian I see it's been awhile since the original post, but it's never too late to talk cymbals, right? My church has got old time acoustics; plenty of hard surfaces that were made for organ and choir. That in mind I've become a lot more conscious of playing softer. My two favorite rides are: a Bosphorus Traditional 22" thin ride (which sounds just killer when played with ProMark nylon-tipped Oak 7As; and a 19" Zildjian A Armand "Beautiful Baby" ride which has three rivets (and a great bell). The big plus with the Armand is that when playing brushes if you hit the edge it sets the rivets bouncing and you end up with this long sustained cymbal sound that is amazingly cool. I'd like to try the Istanbul Mel Lewis ride, the Zildjian Uptown ride and the Zildjian K Custom Organic ride as well, but until my Christmas stocking is stuffed with $50 bills, I'm sticking with what I've got. So have you found anything yet, or are you still in the hunt?

It's a slippery slope, this business of trying to find the "perfect" drumstick. This is what's left after I gave a bunch of sticks to my buddy at work. I know we need different sticks to do different things, but I may be at the point where I need professional help. (Know when to say when.)