Much of the time when I am playing percussion in a church service, there is also a drumset player. My closest interaction within the rhythm section is with the drummer. The drumset skills developed in high school and college (I still practice drumset and play a few gigs on it these days!) serve me well when I am in the percussionist role. When I am playing percussion, I am often thinking about what the drummer is playing and trying to weave my part around his playing in a complimentary fashion. I can often predict where the drummer will lay down a fill, phrase some horn hits, or play a set up figure. This helps me avoid playing “on top” of a fill or cluttering the phrasing. Check back soon for Percussion and Drumset Part 2
I find that being a drummer myself, the hardest part of playing percussion is to NOT think like a drummer. So for example, in music where the drummer is "filling up" the rhythmic space ('x' axis) pretty well, and also the tonal (drum tones - 'y' axis) space - then perhaps going somewhere else rhythmically and/or tonally is best ('z' axis). This normally means that conga patterns might be too much duplication of the 'xy axes'. I personally like doing shakers in one hand and then a hand-tapped wood block or single-hand playable triangle with the other.
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