Thanks guys for the love. I also see another interesting topic has spurned up as well. I love it. Since this is my first venture into this type of music, I really took some time to listen to some of the drummers that play CCM. I noticed that they all seemed to have this sort of "swagger" in their playing, meaning they sort of play loosely around the meter. There fills are also really open and dramatic. I tried to authenticate that feel. I must say, though it may seems like it, it wasn't easy trying to incorporate that.
I've played mostly gospel all of my life and became use to the intricacies in the genre, especially fill-wise. The fills tend to be a lot faster (subdivisionally) and powerful. That's a hard habit to break. That's why I appreciate guys like Calvin because they've incorporated the more open fill/lick into gospel music.
While playing CCM, I literally have to over exaggerate the movements in my limbs to counteract my instinct do a fast fill (i.e. 16th and 32nd notes). The audience takes it as me being animated and "into" it, but I'm literally fully extending my arms when going around the kit. It helps. I also had to tone down the activity on the bass drum. In gospel music there are a lot of notes that can be played on the bass drum. I had to mindfully pull the reigns on that as well. I haven't by any means perfected the genre, but those few actions I've taken has made the adjusment a lot less noticeable.
