mikeymo's place: January 2009

1/30/09

From the Studio - Take 2

Doesn't look like much, does it?

This picture is a song - specifically, it is our version of Hillsong's "One Way," right after we finshed laying drums, electric guitar and bass. The program is a nifty little do-hickey called ProTools. The screen on the right is a virtual mixing board, and the screen on the left shows a graphic representation of each of the tracks. I use a couple of programs similar to this at home to edit the GLCC podcast and our live recordings, but this program is a Lamborghini Mercielago compared to the old minivan I'm using. (You can click on the picture to biggify it - it won't hurt you.)

First thing we did last night was to re-track the acoustic and piano parts for "Tell the World." Our recording engineer/producer Gabi had massaged the basic track, doubletracking it and "quantitizing" it to the grid, meaning he evened out the minor timing inconsistancies. It is amazing how tight the song sounds now, even at this early stage.

Once we had finished up with "Tell the World" we moved on to "One Way," a song with a similar groove and feel to it. We did a couple of takes, and in the end wound up competely re-tracking after the bridge, and then re-tracking the drums on the last chorus and tag. I am, however, really happy with the way it sounds so far. We got the whole thing done, including the piano and acoustic parts.

Moving forward, we're going to try and have Justin sing on a dummy track next week as we record. One of the problems we're having is transitions from one part of the song to the next. With three isolated musicians and no vocals, if someone loses count it messes the whole deal up. None of us are "studio" musicians, so we're not used to working off charts, so this has been a challenge - although this time we did much better. But the thought is by having him sing, we can stary together easier. Worth a shot, anyway.

Next week we'll be recording "He Reigns" and hopefully one other song. Then we need to tackle "Mighty to Save," which might be the most technically challenging of all the tracks.

1/29/09

The Wiinstrument is Not a Toy

Last week, I read about some really cool stuff a guy named Johnny Chung Lee is doing with the remote from a Wii console, thanks to a tweet by Joel Klampert. Turns out that the wiimote is much more than a simple game controller.

Many of us assumed that the wiimote was a typical "infrared gun" type remote pointing at the sensor bar you mount on your TV. Actually, the sensor bar has the lights in it, and the wiimote contains a tiny infrared camera at the end. (Point your cellphone camera at the sensor bar if you don't beleive me.) That, combined with an accelerometer and a bluetooth radio, give the wiimote its unique abilities. (For those fluent in geek-speak, details are here.)

Some college students at the Universitat Potsdam in Germany have developed an app called The Wiinstrument, which basically allows the wiimote to act as a MIDI controller and create music. The Wiinstrument comes in three beta-release flavors: Windows, Mac and Linux.

I downloaded the Windows version the other day, and commenced to try to use this puppy. Most of the documentation I've found tells you you need to install the Blue Soleil bluetooth stack to get the wiimote to sync to your PC, but I had absolutely no trouble using the Windows stack. It took a total of two minutes to sync the controller and get the program working. The basic process is this: launch the Windows bluetooth applet, go to "Add,"press the 1 and 2 buttons on the Wiimote. Boom. The controller was recognized using he "Human Interface Device" service, so it basically looks like a mouse to Windows.

Wiinstrument picked it up right away. There are three screens in the current beta release. One is a set-up screen with a cool accelerometer graph, one is a scale generator, and then there is the payoff - the virtual drum set. Using the Wii nunchuck, you can assign two voices on the scale screen - one for the wiimote and one for the nunchuck. On the drum set, the nunchuck is the kick bass, and the wiimote can operate one of several voices. Very cool.

The Wiinstrument is very limited in its current functionality, but the possibilities are limitless. I'd put money on seeing a wiimote on the next David Crowder* Band tour, given what they do with a Guitar Hero controller. I plan on trying the Linux version over the weekend, and seeing if I can import into Ardour.

OK, geeks, get to it! Here's a vid of the creators using drumstick mode:

1/28/09

A Year of Creativity

I think that 2009 is going to be a year of major creativity. For a couple of reasons:

Seems to be that a lot of folks are doing it. I just peeked in at a new blog community called "Our Creative Community." Seems like a lot of people (like my regular reads Russ and Mandy) are committed to being creative this year.
I'm feeling it. I committed to writing twelve songs this year. (Among other things)
I'm doing it. Gospel Light Worship has started recording a worship CD. While the songs are all covers, we are doing our own arrangements. And the whole process is a creative endeavor for us.
There's more to do! I have a lot of stuff on my plate for this year, which will require some serious creativity. Most of that deals with Gospel Light's Kidzport ministry, for which 2009 will be a year of firsts.

So, get your creative on!

1/26/09

From the Studio - Take 1

So we finally got rolling, starting the recording process on the worship album we had been planning to cut this year. A couple of months of preparation and planning, and now the rubber hits the road, so to speak.

Originally, we had thought to record the instruments in the church itself. After all, that's where they all are. Not having to break everything down, drag it downtown to the studio, set up, break it down, drag it back to the church... seemed like a good idea. So Thursday night, our recording engineer brought all his equipment, we set it all up... and found an unbearable hum from the building's eighty-seven year-old wiring. Scratch day one.

Saturday night we packed everything up and brought it down to the studio in Read's Artspace. Built inside the former Read's department store, the Artspace is a collection of over sixty live/work creative spaces. The artist there - sculptors, painters, photographers, musicians - live in their studios. It is an amazing community.

We had decided to track "Tell the World" first. We began the initial setup with electric guitar, drums and bass. The recording process was surprisingly challenging. In the first place, all of us are basically "live" musicians. None of us have recorded as musicians in a studio setting. This created some challenges, the hardest of which was no one was singing! So here we are, isolated from each other by headphones, no vocals, and trying to get through the songs together.

We had mapped out each song in terms of structure - so many bars of intro, so many bars of verse, etc... But in a song with a lot of parts, it became a challenge for the three of us to all be at the same place at the same time. Finally, we worked out some signals - we could see each other, if not hear each other.

Another change from a live setting is hearing every little mistake. On stage, you are programmed to move past minor flubs - miss a chord change, bumble a drum roll, flub a lyric. Just keep playing, no one noticed. But when you play back that track on the studio monitors - you wince and shudder when you hear them. Did I play that? Ewww!

The cool part is going in an fixing stuff. Picking up from a certain measure, two bars of overlap, boom. Fixed. Also, tracking more instruments. Playing live, I need to choose which guitar part to focus on. Many of the songs we play were written for multiple guitars, and in some cases, multiple keyboards. We have one of each - so it's usually "Do I play the lead part, or the rhythm part?" Usually it's a little of both. But here I was able to play the lead part, then go back and track an acoustic rhythm part right on top of it. It was very cool listening to the playback, and hearing both parts.

In the end, we decided we didn't like the way the second half of the song sounded. So we scrapped everything after the second chorus, re-recorded the solo, the bridge and the outro. Three hours for three minutes and forty-seven seconds of music, and we still have to redo the acoustic track and the piano. We'd better step it up!

We'll be back in Thursday to finish those parts (one take, I hope) and do (hopefully) two more songs.

1/25/09

Sunday Setlist - January 25

We've spent far more time playing together this week as usual, being as we've begun recording sessions for our first album. In fact, we were at it pretty late last night. Nevertheless, there's always a fresh spirit on Sunday mornings!

This weeks setlist:

Opening:

You Are Good (Houghton)

Main Set:

Your Grace is Enough (Tomlin)
We Cry Out (Johnson)
Finding Who We Are (Shamburger)
Rescue (Anderson)
O, Lord, You're Beautiful (Green)

"You Are Good" is a perennial favorite at Gospel Light. If we had a theme song, this would be it. We've probably done more arrangements of this tune than New Breed has done. These days, we just kind of kick it up, but then slow it down right at the end.

We do "Your Grace is Enough" with more energy than Tomlin does it, basically doing it as a full-on praise song. "We Cry Out" and "Rescue" are both fairly new to us. I really like "We Cry Out." We did it with way more power and energy than planned. More guitar, more bass, more drums, much more vocals. Laura belted this song out!

When we started "O Lord, You're Beautiful," the pastor stopped us, told everyone that "We Cry Out" really matched the point of the sermon, and had us replay it. We did about a six-minute version of it. Josh kept repeating the line "Oh God, we cry out for your mercy..." over and over. Best worship in awhile!

This is part of Fred McKinnon's setlist carnival. See what other churches are doing.

1/23/09

Song of the Week - Rescue - Desperation Band

I love a good story. The Desperation Band has a good story. Ergo, I love the Desparation Band.

Prior to 2001, New Life Church in Colorado Springs had (and still has) a thriving youth ministry known as Desparation. At the time, New Life had three associate worship pastors: Jared Anderson, who led the Sunday night service; Jon Egan, who led the high school group, and Glenn Packiam, who led the college group.

In 2001, New Life's senior pastor suggested that these three worship leaders work together for the church's first Desparation Conference. In 2003, the Desparation Band released their first album, aptly titled desperation.

"Rescue" was one of the singles on that record, penned by Anderson. Jared also released an updated, bluesier version on his 2006 solo record, Where to Begin.

It's a pretty simple song. The verse is short:

You are the source of life

I can't be left behind

No one else will do

I will take hold of you.

But the real hook is in the chorus:

I need you Jesus

to come to my rescue

where else can I go?

There's no other name by

which I am saved

You capture me with grace

I will follow you.

It's a nice, gentle, heartfelt call to Jesus. It's simplicty is what makes it work so well - it is easily remembered, and thus easily sung. Simple chords (mainly Bm-D2-G2) make it easy to play as well. All in all, a greast worship tune.

1/22/09

Random Thursdayness

Here are some random thoughts for today...

Today is the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade descision. Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) realizes it was wrong, why can't other have the same common sense?

Today is also the day of the typical "Switch in Presidential Party Ping-Pong Game" gets another volley served. This refers back to the ban on U.S. Federal funding for non-government organizations that provide abortions, the so-called Mexico City Policy. This ban was made official United States policy in 1984 by President Reagan. The main reason was that some government-funded organizations were providing abortions overseas in circumvention of the host country's laws. On January 22, 1993, President Clinton rescinded the policy, and the funding for the killing began anew.

On January 22, 2001, President Bush reinstated the policy by Executive Order. It was expected today that President Obama would once again recind the policy, but as of today the White House has said it will not. Most analysts suspect that the administration is simply waiting for Congress to pass legislation to that effect. (This was attempted in 2007, however, President Bush threatened to veto the measure.)

Today we are finally beginning our recording project. We begin tracking instruments tonight. This is very exciting. Already we've sold a bunch of CD's, and haven't even laid down a single note. Expect a report on this later.

I spent some time listening to Mandy Thompson's music yesterday. She is one of the best singer/songwriters you've never heard of. (or maybe you have) Check out "Never." Great song.

My daughter Shannon got her first college acceptance letter this week. Pretty exciting. She put off opening it, because she felt like it came to soon, so it must be a rejection. Granted, it's not her first choice school, but still, it's exciting. (Less exciting is the FAFSA and cheking out the tuitions...) We still have at least one more school to visit, in Boston.

I'm still sick, and it's annoying....

1/21/09

Ol' Rick Did Alright

There's been a lot of buzz around the blogsphere and news commentary-sphere regarding Pastor Rick Warren's invocation at President Obama's inauguration yesterday. Joel liked it. Fernando didn't. (Two guys whose opinions I hold in high regard, BTW.)

I think ol' Rick did alright. Let's face it, he was in a tough spot. A million and a half people standing in front of him, and he has to get up there and pray. An entire world watching, and he has to get up there and pray. I know people who can't pray in front of crowds of three!

So here's the challenge: be as ecumenical and inclusive as possible, and still stay true to who you are and what you believe. Hmm. That's a tough one. See, Pastor Rick knows what many of us know: that when we pray, we are supposed to pray in Jesus' name. To do any less would sacrifice who Rick Warren is.

There was a lot of speculation when it was announced that Rick Warren would be giving the invocation. "Will he mention Jesus?" I would have been surprised (and disappointed) had he not. Yes, he did try to be inclusive. Not many Christians or Jews might notice that as an addendum to the Shema Yisrael quote from Deuteronomy 6 (Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One) he added "And you are the compassionate and merciful one." This is, of course, a reference to the invocation at the beginning of almost every chapter of the Qur'an: "Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, (In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful.)"

As I said, Rick was in a tough spot. Calling on the name of Jesus is not very popular today, especially in a crowd of (I suspect largely) liberals. There was a very muted response to his prayer. Selecting Rick was a definite coup for the new administration, a shrewd political move. Originally, there was dismay from the political right, basically calling Rick a traitor for agreeing to give the invocation. But then, when the gay-marriage community started making noise, conservatives embraced Rick's selection. The president, by standing up to his liberal base and sticking with Rick, made inroads to middle America and extended an olive branch to evangelicals. Smooth.

Whatever your opinion of what Rick Warren said, you have to applaud him for having the guts to say it. But then, faith is a great encourager.

1/20/09

Bigger Than the Man

I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a history buff. I watch the History Channel more than I'd probably admit casually. If I "had it to do all over again" I might get a degree in history. Last night I watched several hours of an excellent series on HC called "The Presidents."

Obviously, this focus on the POTUS, as the Secret Service calls him, comes as a result of the fact that there is another Presidential inauguration today. At noon today, E.S.T, Barack Hussein Obama will become President of the United States.

This is more than a job; it is a thing. The Presidency is, in fact, bigger than the man. As I was watching the histories of presidents throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, I became struck by how unique each of these men was.

Romans 13 states that "there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God." Throughout the last 220 years, God has placed these men in this position, to govern us, to lead us, and (in some cases) as judgement on us. Only history will tell if President Obama is a blessing or a curse on this nation. But I can tell you one thing: the recovery of this nation lies as much with us as it does with him.

Steve wrote it well yesterday: "The current mess we find ourselves in isn't due any one political party or even ideology. It's due to one thing, and one thing only: entitlement." You're absolutely right, Steve. This nation (and I have been as guilty of this as anyone) does not believe in living within one's means. We have grown into a nation of faux-aristocrats, entitled to our homes and cars and computers and dinners out and vacations, ad infinitum. Some of the young people who work for me have such a bad work ethic it's staggering.

This is not an indictment of an entire generation; there are many young people I know that are hard-working, industrious and God-fearing. This is an indictment of all of us - because to some degree, we all have created this monster, and have allowed it to grow.

On the other hand, I am proud of this nation. I'm proud, because we have turned a page. I was not certain that we would ever see an African American elected President in my parents' lifetime. This is a huge step forward for us, a country built on the ironic twin foundations of inclusionism and racism.

Be clear - I was not, and am not, a supporter of Barak Obama. To paraphrase Dr. King, I do not object to him based on the color of his skin, but on the content of his character. Barak Obama scares me. I'm scared that he is going to weaken protections for the unborn, that he is going to weaken the God-given institution of marriage, that he is going to weaken this mighty nation.

That said, he is still - as of noon today- my President. He is deserving (and needing) of our prayers. Grumbling about a lost election will do no good. It's time to get out and do what we're supposed to be doing.

1/18/09

Sunday Setlist - January 18

Another weekly setlist from Gospel Light Community Church in Bridgeport, Ct. This is part of the Sunday Setlist carnival at Fred McKinnon's blog.

This week's set:

Opening:

Show Me Your Glory (Avery/Byrd/Carr/Powell/Lee/Anderson)

Main Set:

One Way (Houston/Douglass)
Again I Say Rejoice (Houghton/Lindsey)
I'm Yours (Buchanan/Johnson)
All Who Are Thirsty(Brown/Robertson)
Arms of Love (Musseau)/The Stand(Houston)

We were a little shorthanded this week, so I wound up doing double duty-playing drums on the first three songs, and switching to guitar on the last few. It's been awhile... I almost had a cardiac arrest on "I'm Yours." (For those of you unfamiliar with Fusebox, it pretty well rocks out.) One of the kids in my group (who started coming after my switch to full-time guitar) came up to me after service and commented how impressed he was. (He's taking drum lessons.) Guess the ol' man still got some game!

We got to do the medley we had planned for last week. The addition of the bass and a pad on the keys really made it sound better. We still played it with no percussion at all. We cut into "The Stand" after the second chorus of "Arms of Love," coming in at the prechorus. Then we did the first verse, and back to the prechorus and chorus. We started the chorus pretty much a capella, and then built it up each time. We finally brought it back down and sang it one more time, and then into "Arms of Love" again. The effect was something like "All I am is yours.... all I am is yours... all I am is yours... in your arms of love... in your arms of love..." and so on. I must say, it really worked well.

We have a service tonight... our monthy joint service with our daughter church. Not sure what we're playing... we usually do that on the fly.

So, what did you do?"

1/16/09

Song of the Week - No One Like You - David Crowder* Band

There are few bands that have as much fun at their shows than David Crowder* Band. (And yes, that's how it's properly styled, and no, I don't know what the asterisk is for.) Very few bands engender the desire for audience participation like these guys do.

Whether it's the giant screens on either side of the stage with the lyrics to every song, the simple, repetitive, easy-to-remember lyrics, or the fact that David stops the band frequently to explain exactly what the audience's part in the song will be, DC*B wants you to sing along.

"No One Like You" is a perfect example of a song built for audience participation. David will usually begin by teaching the audience how to sing the chorus - and by the way, no audience is ever loud enough for David Crowder. David Crowder probably wishes Skillet would turn it up.

You are more
beautiful
than anyone
ever.
Everyday
you're the same.
You never change.
No, never.

(No that's not a formatting error. That's the way the song goes)

The song is basically a simple song of praise to God, for being who He is - a beautiful, kind and loving Savior. The bridge says it all:

How could you be so good to me?

That's the crux of the question. But David brings it all home in the chorus

There is no one like you!
There has never, ever been
anyone like you!

My favorite part of the song (during a live show) is the end of the bridge, which goes:

We're not alone
So sing aloud
sing aloud
sing aloud!

At which point the band stops to let the crowd roar "HERE WE GO!"

The song is built around a simple I-vi-V-IV progression. If you see a concert, you'll see him playing a G progression with a capo on 1. David generally tunes his guitars down to Eb, which gives an original key of G. Barlow Girl covered the song in E. The song was originally released on 2003's Illuminate album, but I much prefer the live version on Remedy Club Tour - Live Edition.

Here is the band doing the song live in Anaheim:

1/14/09

Amazing

Sometimes God just reaches down and puts His mighty hand to something. When we're at our end, when we've just about given up, when we have no choice but to cry out... then He goes "Finally! Let me work now." To quote the late, great Rich Mullins, "There is thunder in His footsteps and lightning in His fists."

So sit back, and let Him do His thing....

1/13/09

Gospel Light Unplugged

As promised, I made up some clips of the acoustic set last Sunday. Each one is 60-90 seconds, just for a taste....

Beautiful One: This is a great tune to rock out; turns out it's also a good tune to do unplugged. Harmonies really come into play nicely.

Mighty to Save: We're going to be recording this one for the CD. It's a pretty complicated song the way Hillsong does it - lots of different guitar parts, lots of effects, lots of voices. Stripping down a song like this really lets you focus on what it's trying to say, I think. Sometimes we get lost in great production choices and miss great lyrical choices.

Praise Adonai: This continues to be one of my favorite acoustic songs. Paul Baloche did it like this one one of his DVD's - two acoustic guitars, piano, acoustic bass and congas. Sounds awesome. I tried to get the same groove on the guitar work, but the girls really hit it out.

Higher: Doing this song without a lot of delay takes something away from it, but (like Mighty to Save) stripping it down brings it right to what the song is saying. Samir did an amazing job in the verses here.

Arms of Love: I'd really love to get a violin player and do this song right. Still... the girls did pretty good. We'll be doing this one again this coming week as the medley we planned.

We'll be heading into the studio this week to begin the recording project. I am so pumped!

1/10/09

Sunday Setlist - January 11

We did an acoustic set today, as some of the team were away at the youth encounter. So just me on guitar, Laura leading vocals, Mariah and Samir backing.

Opening:

Finding Who We Are (Shamburger)

Main Set:

Beautiful One (Hughes)

Mighty to Save (Morgan)

Praise Adonai (Baloche)

Higher (Fieldes)

Arms of Love (Musseau)/The Stand(Houston)

I find that even though Kutless is pretty heavy, their songs are suited for acoustic. So are Hillsong's. Last time we did an acoustic set I went heavy on the Third Day, so I gave that a rest. "Praise Adonai" continues to be one of my favorite acoustic songs.

I got the idea to combine "Arms of Love" and "The Stand from Fred last week. SSCC did "The Stand" and "Mighty to Save", but we do those in two different keys, and it didn't really fit for me. "Arms of Love" is a great song... we played the first two verses, then into the pre-chorus of "The Stand," then into verse one. After the chorus of "The Stand," we went back to the chorus of "Arms of Love." Confused? Me too. But it sounded great - in rehearsal. We wound up ending on "Higher." Just seemed to be the right moment. We sang "Arms of Love" for a fellowship time, but we need to come back to the medley.

I just listened to the board mix - wow. It sounded much better than I was expecting. I'll try to get some clips up this week.

See what others did in worship this week in Fred's blog.

1/9/09

Song of the Week - Bring Me Home - Me!

This is unusual for me, as I don't like to toot my own horn. (Actually, I do, but that's a different post...)

I've been intrugued by the self-challenges made by Russ and Mandy this year to increase their songwriting output. While I don't think that time will permit me the luxury of writing a song a week, I would like to attempt one a month this year. And if I can write twelve songs this year, then one of them has to be good, no? I mean, throw enough pancake batter at the wall, and something will stick.

So, to kick that off, I'm making the Song of the Week this week the first song I ever wrote : "Bring Me Home."

I wrote this ditty in 2006. I remember disctinctly the message one week was about revival. Pastor Jim said something that I still remember to this day, as if it were yesterday. He said "Revival requires new songs." I thought a lot about that in the following weeks. About two weeks later, I was again sitting in church listening to the sermon, when words just started coming into my head - "You are mercy, you are grace, you are a warm light on my face..." More and more words kept coming, I kept writing around the margins, in between the announcements, under the offering totals...

By the time the sermon was over, I pretty much had it all down. I got it home and polished up the words, but then I stuck it in a drawer for a couple of months. When I pulled it out again, I picked up my guitar and began strumming some simple chords... G...C...A...D... (I didn't know it at the time, but this I-VI-II-V progression is called the "commercial" progression - I lifted it from a Saw Doctors song, I think.)

We introduced this song at our church anniversary in 2007. It's pretty cool when someone else picks it to sing on Sundays. I never do. (There's that humility again!) We do it a couple of times a year. Someday I'd like to record it for real. Maybe on the second CD.

So here is the song, done for the first time in 2007. Below is the chart.

Here's the chart. Click to make bigger, or right click to save.

1/8/09

An Amazing Story.

I was going to write something else today, but I just read this over on Christian Musician Forums, and decided to share it here.

This is a perfect example of the way that people of faith can reach out in love, in small ways, and touch lives.

Read and enjoy....

1/6/09

...and this is how it all started...

Today, Russ challenged people to come up with their "origin" stories regarding involvement in worship ministry. I thought that was a cool idea.

I came to the Lord rather late in life, in my thirties. Now, prior to that, I had only dabbled in music, though I had always had a strong desire. I had a Strat from the time I was in college, and could strum out some cords, and could play some chords on piano, but that was about it. There was really no music creation going on in my family, though there was always lots of music appriciation. I grew up listening to the most eclectic mix of music you could imagine, from Fats Waller and Glenn Miller to Arlo Guthrie to Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons to Van Halen to Vivaldi. Nothing was out of reach, nothing was bad (except country...) and I liked it all.

Fast forward to 2001, when I was rudely awakened by God. Leaving the music I loved behind was hard for me. Then a couple of fortuitous things happened. First, I met a guy named Jim, who was a music teacher at a local school. Since we shared a love for various styles of music, we spoke often and in depth about this. He taught me how to play an instrument called a bodhran. Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a Irish frame drum, kind of like a tambourine but much bigger, with no bells. You play it with a tipper or a beater.

Now, at this point, the worship team at Gospel Light was undergoing a transition. Several members had left, and they were down to a piano player, a conga player, a bass player and a couple of singers. So I had spoken to the worship leader, and was invited to join.

Round about this time, something else happened. A couple from New York showed up out of nowhere and offered to our pastor to provide music instruction at a very low price, provided they could use the church to do it. Several people signed up. They taught vocals, piano, guitar and drums. I took six two-hour lessons on drums, when they disappeared as suddenly as they had came. But something had happened. A spark had been ignited. We gained several vocalists and two fledgling guitar players out of that six weeks, and I moved to playing a full drum kit.

I played as the regular drummer for three years. Along the way, other drummers came along as well. We also had transitioned some of the singers, a couple of bass players and a couple of piano players. Then one guitar player left for college, and the other would be going the following year. I made the descision to try and take up guitar.

After several months of lessons, I began to play during worship, turning the drums over to another player. This is where I've been for the past three years. I feel God has blessed me tremendously in this area. Music seems to come naturally, and I can easily switch between all of our instruments as needed. (In fact, several of us are "multi-instrumental" so we like to switch up, sometimes during the same service.) As I've mentioned before, I am largely self-taught, and I work hard at it, both guitar and piano. I spend more time in personal practice than rehearsal.

As to leading, I don't sing, so I don't "lead" per se... Our team does have a fairly democratic approach, and I tend to do most of the arrangements, keep records and music, and lead from the guitar while others sing, although often Justin will lead from piano as well. I do provide a "leadership" aspect to the team all of whom are younger than me, and will often find training resources for the team. Last year, several of us began providing live accompaniment for our gospel choir. Usually my role there is piano. I also provide technical oversight and help to the media team.

I've been working hard toward preparing for the album we will be recording soon, as I will need to be more technically proficient there than in a live setting. I'm finding that new experience challenging and rewarding.

Since my pastoral calling right now is elsewhere - Children's ministry - this will probably be where I stay as far as worship leadership goes, at least for the forseeable future.

1/5/09

Goals for 2009

I don't like resolutions. They seem to me to be a set-up for failure. But I am goal-oriented, and so I do like setting goals. So here are some goals for 2009. Some are my personal goals, and some are part of larger ministries that I participate in. But it's helpful for me to get them out there, both from a process aspect and from an accountability aspect. So - in no particular order:

Worship Team - focus on quality more than quantity. 2008 was a huge growth year for us, not only in skill levels but in the depth of our catalog. But it's possible we've gotten ahead of ourselves a bit. I'm not sure how many new songs we've introduced this year, but it's probably in the 15-20 range. That's on top of the 15 or so new songs for the Send Judah First choir. So this year, Josh shared his vision to simplify things. At first I was a little put off, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. So we're going to cut our catalog of about 80 active songs down to a more manageable 50 or so, and hold off introducing new music for a while. We want to focus on getting better, and having the congregation be more of a participant. And that comes with familiarity.

Worship CD. We go into the studio next week to start recording. This is going to be a big focus for us in the next month or two, but it kind of goes back to point #1: excellence. If we're going to be recording (and hopefully this will just be the first) we need to hunker down and get better. Which leads to...

Getting better. I need to spend more time practicing and developing new skills. I play pretty much by ear right now, although I do have some music theory under my belt. What I do know is mostly self-taught. I want to develop a better understanding of music theory -modes, harmonies, melodies. I also need to develop my ear-training some. I have a hard time sometimes explaining to people what I want or think, because music is largely intuitive to me. I need to develop the language better. (This is why it's hard for me to teach music; I can't understand that people don't hear or feel what I do.) I don't know what kind of goals to set here; perhaps some commenters could offer suggestions.

Expanding the Children's Ministries. KidzPort and GLCCKidz are going great, especially KidzPort. It has already grown beyond expectations in a few months, but that's not enough. I really want the Children's Network to be a focal point of life at Gospel Light, to be something that really draws people in. It already has - the network is growing all the time, and already there are parents that children have brought in. But I want more; God wants more. I want to have a revival weekend this year just for children, and I want to have at least two KidzTrek events. (One is scheduled for February!)

Expand our web presence. The GLCC website has been getting more hits than ever, and we've been adding content to it on a regular basis. But while it has been a great took for seekers, it still lacks for members. We need to develop better content that will be of more use to our members, and make it more of a resource. Come to think of it, I'd like to overhaul the whole thing.

Do more home ministry. This one should be almost intuitive, but often the home takes a hit when time falls short. I want to focus more on spending time with family, doing things together and worshipping together. We keep talking about doing a family night - I think we really need to just do it.

Get that twelve-string. OK, this is more G.A.S. than goal, but it's still something I want to do. I think it will add dimension to certain songs.

Raise up another guitar player. I think that adding a second guitar will add a lot of dynamic to our sound, and give more flexibility in terms of parts and styles.

Meet some of the folks whose thoughts I read every day. I spent a while on the phone with Billy last year, helping him through some stuff (I hope). I live less than two hours from Joel and really want to see what he's doing in that cool church of his. I'm hoping Fred somehow does pull off a TWC conference this year, and I'll meet Chris and Russ and Brent and Johnny and Windbag. I plan on being in Boston looking at colleges for Shannon soon - maybe Mandy and Drew will be nearby. And of course, everyone is invited, whenever.

So that's some of it. I suppose there's more, but there's 360 more days to blog about it this year.

1/4/09

Sunday Setlist - January 4

Aah, the first service of the New Year! Unless you count our New Year's eve service, that is, which was well attended dispite bad weather. The pix today are from that service.

We had a good one today, though. The team has been in very high spirits, as we begin recording our first CD next week. Josh was preaching in our church plant Waterbury today, so Justin stepped up and did a great job leading. Here's the setlist:

Opening : Revelation Song (Riddle)

Main Set:

Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)

You Are Good (Houghton)

Ancient of Days (Harvill/Sadler)

Holy is the Lord (Tomlin/Giglio)

Empty Me (Holy Fire) (Comer/Way)

Agnes Dei (Smith)

I wound up playing drums on "Revelation Song" for the opening, which was cool. It's been a couple of months since I've played, and that song has a lot of dynamics to play with. "Blessed Be..." and "You Are Good" have long been congregation favorites, so there was a lot of response there. "Ancient of Days" is an old-school favorite. We don't have the orchestra that Ron Kenoley tours with, so we rock it out a bit, but it's still one of the best "bass player" songs out there.

"Empty Me" we do in as un-Jeremy Camp style as you can imagine, basically as an acoustic driven ballad. "Agnus Dei" is acoustic as well (though I'd love to do a full-out Third Day version.) The three acoustic songs made a nice counterpoint to the last few weeks, which have been kind of "rocked out." (Next week will be an acoustic set - tune in to find out why.)

Check out other setlists at Fred McKinnon's blog.

1/2/09

Song of the Week - Can You Feel It? - David Crowder* Band

I've been listening to this song all week, so it's a bit of a natural. I don't really know why. It just seems to have struck me. It is also my daughter Shannon's favorite, so maybe that plays into it.

The band does this song early in their Remedy Tour setlist. (I know, I've seen it twice!) It's usually kind of blended with "Everything Glorious." It has a really cool groove to it, kind of a "What is Love." by Haddaway feel. In fact, this song could be placed right into one of the SNL The Roxbury Guys skits without missing a beat. Very punny, I know.

It's started with some serious drumming by B-Whack. It is actually a very simple song. The verse just repeats...

Can you feel it?
Can you feel it?
The love in this place, can you feel it?
Can you feel it?
Can you feel it?
The grace in this place, can you feel it?
Yeah.

I think Crowder makes his songs so simple to encourage singing. I've heard him say on more than one occaision that his key choices are based on the fact that people have to sing higher keys louder. Singing along is a requirement at a David Crowder* Band concert.

The song follows a narrative progression, explaining faith in a way. The first chorus:

"When I can't feel you there
I can't see you there
I can't comprehend that you are there
You are there, you're everywhere
You are everywhere..."

The second chorus substitues "we" for "I" as it goes. The bridge is just a repetition of the phrase "Our God is here!" which then goes into the final chorus :

"We believe you're here
We can feel you here
We can see you here
We believe you're here!"

This is a pretty tough song to pull off without a Mac full of loops and one cool piano, even though it's only five chords. (Mainly F#m, E2, B2 with the odd A and D thrown in.) Oh yeah, and an electric violin. The piano work is a little different as well. B-Whack is a looping master, and his loop are a staple of the distinctive Crowder sound.

So instead, just sit back and watch.

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