Earlier last week, things were fairly well set in-place and I had little to be concerned about for the weekend. The weekend marked the official opener of duck hunting season in Minnesota – always taking place around the first weekend in October – and I was making plans to head up to Glenwood to hang out with the family. I, myself, am no longer a hunter, but enjoy talking to everyone about their hunting stories and seeing the reactions of the various nephews (I have a total of seven nephews) when they tag along with dad/grandpa/uncle to one of the duck blinds.

It was tracking to be a relaxing, enjoyable weekend.

My family is no different and gathers around wonderful assortments of food as an excuse to get together and share each other’s lives. The meal for our Minnesota Duck Opener weekend included an assortment of various ducks (mallards, teal, and wood ducks) and some pheasants.

That all changed on Tuesday night.

Doing my usual navigating on the computer, I noticed a flashing window on the Facebook site and spied a note from my good friend, Marylisa (yes … I know … she has two first names. I’ve accepted it and you should too). Normally, I would expect some general, innocent banter from Marylisa as we share an odd-ball sense of humor, but Tuesday’s message had a request and it was rather urgent.

Before I can continue my tale, this request needs a little backstory. For the past few weeks/months, Marylisa and her husband, Brent, have been part of a team setting up a new church in Alexandria.

Wait a second … I need to go a little farther back.

When I was a mere 15 years old, I was asked to play drums in a band called the “Velvet Brass”. The band was coordinated by a local trumpet player named “Duffy” Morton and included a few band members from the local community. Included in those members was a piano player named Brent.

Thus, Brent and I played together fairly steady through my high school and college years – before I became a permanent resident of the Twin Cities and it became impractical to be part of a regular band with gigs 2-3 hours away each weekend. The last time I would have played with the group (or any type of coordinated “gig” with a band) was probably somewhere around 1994-1995.

But, Brent and I became friends beyond the band (he played the music at my wedding), and when he married Marylisa (another childhood friend of mine), it was a good fit to keep all three of us connected.

OK – backstory completed (although I may have confused you, versus helped you) – and onto Tuesday night’s Facebook chat.

Brent had just found out the drummer he had arranged for the Sunday church service was unable to make it and they were a little desperate. The church music was based on the more modern “Christian Rock” sound and playing the music without drums just wouldn’t present well.

Thus, Marylisa’s note had a simple request. Would I be willing to bring my drums up for the weekend and fill-in as the replacement drummer for the services?

If you look at the details, my drumset screams “80s hair band”. But, it has served me well since buying it as a freshman in college. This was the first time I’ve had it assembled on a stage in LONG time.

If I were playing my drums under steady rotation with live performances and basement practices, my answer would have been an easy “yeah, sure … when should I show up?” But – I hadn’t really played my drums at a dedicated level for over 15 years. Sure, they were setup in my basement – near the clothes washer and dryer – leading me to sit down and play a few minutes after dumping off a load of whites into the washer. But, I truly had not played anything in a coordinated way in a very long time. To say I was “rusty” is an extreme understatement.

So, after some back-n-forth with Marylisa (with maybe a few exaggerations for good humor), I convinced myself that I would at least try. Both Brent and Marylisa are awesome friends to have in my life and my willingness to help them at their time of need was actually a very easy decision to make.

Unfortunately, that meant that I needed to learn how to play my damn drums again … and I only had four days to do it … covering four different Christian Rock songs that I’ve never heard before … playing them live in front of an audience with no chance for rehearsal … with a group of musicians whom I’ve not met.

The service would eventually take place in the cafeteria of a brand new elementary school in Alexandria. It’s far from a stadium full of rock-n-roll fans, but any attentive audience is a good one for which to play.

In hindsight – I have no idea why I should have said “yes”. Any sane person would have assessed the situation, realized it was wrought with trouble and walked away quietly. Of course, my sanity level was probably one of the reasons I was asked.

On Wednesday, I was in a simple panic mode. I found the songs online and purchased them via iTunes so that I could put them on my iPod and have them on steady rotation during my commute and at work where I could concentrate on the arrangements. As “easy” as it appears to play the drums, if I don’t understand the song’s structure, I can’t produce the proper transitions to make the song sound as if it was moving from one verse to a chorus (or back again). Also, Brent didn’t make it easy by choosing songs with simple structure and time signatures. Instead, he chose a song with 3/4 time signature and several songs that broke typical rules – like adding an extra measure to an even-measured verse in order to build into a energetic chorus.

Anyway, Brent assured me that the arrangements would be as close to the recordings as possible, but the group would not be following full-articulated music. Guitar players, bass players, and keyboard players can get away with simple chord charts that float on top of lyrics. The good of that environment is that it is very flexible. The bad of the that environment is that it is flexible and can be changed immediately without warning at the whim of any player. Guitar players can simply strum a few extra chords, but drummers get caught out with a change in playing style that doesn’t match the other musicians.

Brent is an incredible musician who extends his talents across piano, guitar, singing and a host of other instruments. Marylisa surprised me a little with her singing and bass playing after only a few months of experience.

By Wednesday evening – after several hours to workup the drum arrangements I heard on the recording of the song “Love The Lord” – I was ready to let Brent and Marylisa know this wasn’t going to work. My right foot did NOT want to cooperate with my brain in producing a steady beat. My ability to predict and deliver a drum fill between a verse and a chorus was atrocious and rushed and clunky and overly-complicated and robotic and (pick your negative adverb). I really believed that I had signed up for too much and was becoming aware that I might disappoint my friends.

Fortunately, a good nights sleep provided some much needed clarity on my approach to the songs. I decided against trying to re-produce the studio production quality of the recordings and worked to keep the rhythms simple. In a church service, the emphasis is on the singing (not the instruments) so I figured my best approach would be to stay out of the way, provide a steady back beat, and just keep time while trying to capture the style of the song. That really changed my approach to the music and I started to feel more comfortable as the week wound down.

And soon it was Saturday and I was packing up my drums to put into the car. I was a little surprised at how efficient I was a tearing down my drums and arranging them into my cases – but realized that every musician becomes incredibly skilled at the end of the night when all you want to do is get the car packed up and headed towards home. I took a leaned-out version of my kit to the gig, but still had a full car since I only drive a little Mazda 3.

Sunday morning came and I was on my way from my dad’s place to Alexandria. The church was using a cafeteria in a new elementary school, so I found my way through some back roads to the place. The stage was setup nicely – ideal, actually for the situation – and would allow me to play my drums in a way that did not need to over-emphasize the reduced volume in order to match well with the guitars. I had been worried that I would radically need to change my playing style in order to keep sound level balance with the other musicians, but the fears were unfounded once I got onsite.

After playing steadily for many years when I was younger and experiencing hundreds of live performances, it was fun to return to the drumset and play for a group of people.

The actual event went well. Sure, we sounded rough on parts. But, we only got a chance to play once through each song before the service began. Then, it was time for the “big show” and we all did a great job at keeping it together. When the primary goals are to simply start and stop the songs at the same time – while transitioning from the verses to the chorus in a semi-coordinated way – any performance beyond that is the proverbial “icing on the cake”.

I was able to capture some video for two of the songs and you are welcome to watch them by linking through to:

The sound quality isn’t great due to the positioning of my camera, but you get a sense of how things went. For not playing my drums in over 15 years, I was proud that I kept it together for the duration of the service. You’ll notice a few grins on my face when my body simply refused to deliver a command I gave it from my brain. Both Brent and Marylisa (the bass player in the videos) did an incredible job at pulling together a group, while still sounding professional and well-arranged. As you watch the videos – don’t forget that it was the second time that the group EVER played each song together.

The weekend closed well and the kids were able to enjoy the mild afternoon in Grandpa’s backyard – raking leaves together in order to jump in them and send them scattering back over the lawn.

I’m hoping this experience lights a fire in my belly and gets me back into regular playing. Although you might not imagine it from reading this blog, I enjoy playing my drums MORE than riding my bike. And I can thank Brent and Marylisa for giving me the chance to re-ignite that flame.