Nice Guy Rich

I love this and I’m going to send it out the next time I lead worship.

I feel so sorry for the fledgling bassist, who was mentoring her and, supposed to be looking after her? New talent needs nurturing, not embarrassing in front of the whole church. What were the Tech Team doing? How did they not notice that there was no bass? Didn't any other band members notice the lack of bass? I agree with giving new players a platform and a chance to play but, they should still be able to tell if the amp is switched off. If we start them off from day one with the idea that "it's someone else's job", they will never become reliable and accomplished, responsibility breeds responsibility.

Did she not notice that she couldn't hear herself playing? These kind of incidents infuriate me, it proves that she just turned up and played without caring how she sounded and how she fit in with the other musicians, she must be oblivious and living in her own f**king dreamworld.

The church is no different to any other organization, where there are people, there are problems. We had one old lady leave my church because she said that I played the bass too loud, I explained to her that I just played it and that it was the Tech Team/Sound desk that govern the volume but she wasn't having it. She blamed me and told me so, quite loudly in the middle of our local Sainsburys. Church people are odd.....and that's coming from me, a church person.

@Risk101 As much as it would be good to meet up, I work nowhere near the City. I'm fine, it's just that sometimes I naively assume that others will have the same passion, focus, enthusiasm, drive and commitment as myself, talk about setting myself up for disappointment LOL. I just needed to have a rant to likeminded musicians to get it out of my system. I initially joined the worship team as a bass player but now, I play bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, I sing lead vocals and I lead worship. I suppose it's because I fill a lot of different roles that more gets asked of me. I LOVE playing in the worship team and I'm going to focus on the fact that I'm playing more music now at 55 than I ever did when I was in my teens and 20's. I will continue to serve God and my church, I will continue to "praise him with the strings." Psalm 150:4 😃

To save my sanity, I've decided to work to rule and only do exactly what I'm asked to do and nothing more. If there's a gap that needs filling...not my problem. If someone forgets their music...not my problem. If someone forgets their instrument...not my problem. If someone can't make rehearsal...not my problem. It's not for me to wipe the behinds of others, I'm going to sit back and watch the chaos unfold.

@LukeFRC If I stopped getting there early, nobody else would step up and then, we'd be starting 40-60 minutes late. @Dad3353 I can assure you that I'm not angry, I'm passionate. @Rich It's beyond disrespectful, it's sometimes seems like it's done on purpose. Part of the problem is that I'm thorough, I send my songs out at least a week in advance (others do it 2-3 days before the service and then wonder why we can't play a seven song medley of songs we've never played before). I print out in advance, a detailed sheet for the Tech Team of how I've structured the songs (verse 1, chorus, verse 2 etc) whilst others try to write it on the back of fag packet, 2 minutes before the service starts. I try to lead by example but unfortunately, most people see my efforts as a chance for them to do bugger all and they want everyone else to come down to their level.

Luckily for them, it wasn't a rehearsal that I was at. I would've verbally torn them to shreds and made them sing the basslines.

They say that they care but, their actions say otherwise. I refuse to give in and be beaten by the apathy of others, I'm going to pray long and hard and, if God wants me to put myself forward to run the Worship Team, I will.

My Pros list only consists of; I love playing as music is my passion. I get to serve God and the church. I'm improving as a musician. There isn't actually anybody officially in charge but, I honestly doubt that it would change anything if there was. I could run the Worship Team but I know that I'd end up losing people by telling a few home truths. The general consensus is that it's voluntary so we can't ask too much of people and, everyone has lives outside the church and so what if they miss a few rehearsals and pull out at the last minute. I had to lead worship two Sundays running because somebody else, who was down to lead that week, didn't want to, they felt that because they had led worship three weeks before, it was too close to the last time.....well me leading two Sundays running is a lot closer together than three weeks apart you knob. It drives me f**king mad and all I get told, is to relax and don't get stressed. I get stressed because I actually give a f*ck, I take my music very seriously and when I play, I give God the best I can offer. I'm easy going but, even I've come close to punching people due their lack of commitment and how they don't give a sh*t. I get to every rehearsal and every service at least 30-40 minutes early, I turn everything on, set up the PA and get everything ready, the others then rock up 10-20 minutes after we were due to actually start playing and then the usual bullsh*t begins; "sorry I'm late", "l need a coffee before we start", "what songs are we playing?", "how does this song go?", "I forgot my [BLANK] can I borrow yours?", "has anybody got the music, I never printed it off", "I haven't even listened to the songs yet", "I've just go to take this call".... Sometimes we don't even have a rehearsal before the Sunday because most of the others have something more important to do, we then all turn up on Sunday morning with no time to run through the songs and I know that someone won't have even listened to the songs and will play bum notes throughout the entire service and make us all sound like idiots. I really don't want to quit but it's getting close to it.

There's nothing personal on there, it's just a long list of the arseholery that I have to put up with from other people; People turning up without their instrument and then wondering why they can't play. Persistent lateness, these people must get bored of saying "sorry I'm late" every time they walk into a room. People not even listening to the songs and then expecting someone else to teach it to them when we're supposed to be rehearsing. People not turning up for rehearsal because they forgot they were playing. Complete lack of communication, people not reading their Whatsapp messages for days and then, when they have finally read it, they don't bother replying to the question I asked them. The list goes on....

Yet again, I find myself thinking about quitting the Worship Team so I drew up a list of Pros and Cons to help....the Pros list stands at 3, the Cons list currently stands at 13. It's not looking good....

I had a history of playing in Rock and Metal covers bands so, roundwounds were always my weapon of choice. I gave flats a try and fell in love with them, now all of my basses are fitted with La Bella 760FS's.

When I started playing bass back in '89, I used Rotosound Swing Bass. I then used Elites Stadium strings for years, I changed back to Rotosound RB45's a couple of years ago. Then I started using Elites Detroit Flats until I took the financial plunge and got myself a set of La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass 760FS strings. Now I use La Bella 760FS strings on all my basses.

@Chadu25 Love `PRAISE', it's a great song. I'm planning on including it in a service in a couple of weeks.

Greeting Noobs, love the Jack Cassidy bass, keep the flats on it 👍🏼

Oscar Peterson and the Bassists - Live in Montreux ‘77. Theres nothing better than immersing yourself in Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and the mighty NHOP Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen 🙌🏻

What stand did you use and, how did you fix it to the STAGG?

@Burns-bass Huge thanks, I just messaged my address to you. A donation to charity will definitely be made.

After playing bass for decades, I finally bought an EUB (a Gear4Music 3/4 electric upright bass). I know it’s going to come with generic budget strings so, can I ask what strings you can recommend? I want flatwound double bass strings and, I don’t want anything ‘top of the range’ as I can’t afford to spend a fortune, I am aware that DB strings aren’t cheap.

@dmc79 Are these just the headphones? As we currently use stage monitors, we’re going to need transmitters and receivers too, what do you use for these?

My church are looking to get IEM’s (in ear monitors), if your church uses them, which ones do you use? I’m thinking that a wireless IEM would be the best option to eliminate more cables trailing around.

@Risk101 It's more a case of necessity, I joined as a bass player and then someone left the Worship Team, I was asked if I could play guitar and one thing led to another.

I’ve been playing in my church’s worship team for 2 years now and I love it 😁👍🏻. I play bass, I sing both lead and backing vocals and, I play acoustic guitar, I’ve also done a couple of sermons 🙏🏻.