It’s no big secret that I get up at the same time every day, even on weekends. On some days - like the weekends, I may go back to be afterwards but I’m up and about at 6 am everyday. It sure makes Monday mornings a non-issue. Well… that’s about to change. Starting this Sunday, my church goes to 2 services: 9:00am and 10:15am. What that means is that on the Sunday’s I’m scheduled to play, I have to be there at 6:30′ish. To be honest, that’s a little early to be thinking about banging on some drums. With this challenge though comes the realization that we’re growing - to continue that growth, things have to be done to accommodate it, in this case, going to a second service.

If technical gremlins can be kept to a minimum, mornings usually go well. It’s when things go south that things get interesting. Yesterday things went pretty smoothly for the most part, at least from my perspective. We were actually done with warm-up with almost 45 minutes to spare. That was a nice change. I played my full kit this go around… 2 rack toms, 2 floor toms and of course my kick and snare. I went with my birch/maple Masterworks snare for today. Depending on what we’re doing I can pick from the latter or my Steve Ferrone, copper piccolo or my Dunnett titanium snare. Each has its own “voice” so it’s nice to have the flexibility to pick from a couple. Honestly though, sometimes I just bring whatever is in a case as I head out the door. Cymbal-wise, I had my usual crashes but went with my 14″ Zildjian A Custom hats and 21″ K heavy ride mainly for the Decemberadio tune (it was a little on the heavy side). When I want a “crisper” sound, I turn to my 13″ K/Z custom hats instead. The 14 inchers just “slosh” better. My mic setup stays the same in any case - Shure Beta 98’s on the toms, Beta 91 in the kick, KSM 137’s for overheads and of course the venerable SM57 on the snare.

All the above has to be unpacked, set up, mic’d up and plugged up before we’re ready to go. Mix that in with a groggy drummer and you’re in for some fun. I wouldn’t have it any other way.