Playing in Church.

[Richard R]

11 hours ago, Kevsy71 said:

Sunday's service with no drummer- songs at 7m45s and 56m. Kept it simple to help keep the beat; except for missing the ending of the last song with a gratuitous harmonic! Brought along an EBS Studio 30 combo for monitoring, worked a treat.

 

https://tbc.jwpapp.com/m/YP6XgktL/the-woman-at-the-well-service-led-by-nicola-foot-and-neil-durling?list=ZvKJTIPy

I've been watching the service, quite forgot I was supposed to look out for your bass playing.
Pass on my compliments to the preacher and everyone involved, I enjoyed the service. And especially do pass on my regards to your tech team on the sound, camera work and stream quality all top notch and therefore completely unnoticeable. I know from the last two years it takes a lot of effort to get the tech good enough that nobody even notices anymore!

 

On a completely different note - does anyone else have a problem with hearing the lyric "He aids us against the Enemy" as "He aids us against the NME"?   No, thought not, it is just me ☹️

[bass_dinger]

1 minute ago, Richard R said:

I've been watching the service, quite forgot I was supposed to look out for your bass playing.
Pass on my compliments to the preacher and everyone involved, I enjoyed the service. And especially do pass on my regards to your tech team on the sound, camera work and stream quality all top notch and therefore completely unnoticeable.

 

Yes, the camera work was good - different angles and shots. Broadcast quality, but not distracting. 

 

The service too was good. 

[Owen]

I have not noticed that lyric. My issue is that our Church is affiliated to the North West Baptist Association. NWBA. Every time anyone says NWBA, I expect to hear NWA.

[LukeFRC]

9 minutes ago, Richard R said:

I've been watching the service, quite forgot I was supposed to look out for your bass playing.
Pass on my compliments to the preacher and everyone involved, I enjoyed the service. And especially do pass on my regards to your tech team on the sound, camera work and stream quality all top notch and therefore completely unnoticeable. I know from the last two years it takes a lot of effort to get the tech good enough that nobody even notices anymore!

 

On a completely different note - does anyone else have a problem with hearing the lyric "He aids us against the Enemy" as "He aids us against the NME"?   No, thought not, it is just me ☹️

You didn’t know Jesus used to read the Melody Maker?

[Richard R]

11 minutes ago, Owen said:

I have not noticed that lyric. My issue is that our Church is affiliated to the North West Baptist Association. NWBA. Every time anyone says NWBA, I expect to hear NWA.

Straight Outta Conwy

[Richard R]

7 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

You didn’t know Jesus used to read the Melody Maker?

That seems rather appropriate somehow 🙂

[TrevorR]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

You didn’t know Jesus used to read the Melody Maker?

Funny, I always thought this was the publication He had a subscription to…

 

 

I’m reliably informed by my son’s primary school assembly that He danced in the morning (when the world was begun). He danced for the moon and the stars and the sun and so on and so forth…

Edited May 11, 2022 by TrevorR

[dmc79]

9 hours ago, Richard R said:

On a completely different note - does anyone else have a problem with hearing the lyric "He aids us against the Enemy" as "He aids us against the NME"?   No, thought not, it is just me ☹️

Brilliant. Comedic worship lyrics could be a thread within a thread here. One of my favourites was in the old days of acetates & OHPs, when on one song the word ‘desert’ was wrongly spelled as ‘dessert’. 
 

But my all time favourite is in Everlasting God, the line “You’re the defender of the weak”, which sounds more like something you’d hear on Match Of The Day

 

[xgsjx]

1 hour ago, dmc79 said:

Brilliant. Comedic worship lyrics could be a thread within a thread here. One of my favourites was in the old days of acetates & OHPs, when on one song the word ‘desert’ was wrongly spelled as ‘dessert’. 
 

But my all time favourite is in Everlasting God, the line “You’re the defender of the weak”, which sounds more like something you’d hear on Match Of The Day

 

Jesus Saves.

 

My fave is Resurrecting by Elevation - "Your name, Your name, is Victor Reeves".

Edited May 12, 2022 by xgsjx

[oldslapper]

One young worship leader used to use “There is a day” by Phatfish a lot.

 

However he always sang “clothed in immorality” until some spoilsport pointed out that “immortality” was the correct lyric. 

The fact that his father (who was the pastor) didn’t notice, made it funnier. 
 

 

 

[dmc79]

6 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

One young worship leader used to use “There is a day” by Phatfish a lot.

 

However he always sang “clothed in immorality” until some spoilsport pointed out that “immortality” was the correct lyric. 

The fact that his father (who was the pastor) didn’t notice, made it funnier. 
 

 

 

Love it! This reminds of a time in my first church back home when I was in the congregation and sat next to a guy with learning difficulties who had took a shine to me. He had trouble pronouncing some words, and as we were about to stand up and worship, he turned to me and enthusiastically said “We’re gonna do some sinning now!”. Seconds later as we rose to our feet, he excitedly declared “I love sinning!” I didn’t know what to do with myself. He said it loudly enough that a couple of others nearby also heard it. I just looked at him and smiled and said “Me too!”

 

 

[Richard R]

I can't go to Ikea any more after a friend changed a line in Cornerstone to "I dare not trust the Swedish Frame". And my mother used to replace "Gladly, the cross I'd bear" with "Gladly the cross-eyed bear" 

[Richard R]

A friend of mine banned a song at her church on the simple grounds of "what the hell was the writer thinking of, and didn't he notice what he has written?". You know the one:

"Jesus take me as I am, I can come no other way". 

😳

[xgsjx]

There’s the mathematically challenged “How great is our God”…

”The Godhead 3 in 1: Father, Spirit, Son, the Lion & the Lamb”

Maybe it was written by Monty Python’s King Arthur?

[davepb24]

"Salvation Belongs To Our God" often became "Alsatians Belong..." at our church

[oldslapper]

Back in the late 80’s I was recording with a certain WL who’s series of albums were nicknamed by the band “Make way (for my bank balance)”. If you’re under 50, this is likely lost on you….

However, the guide vocals on one song of the Christmas album, I noticed the line “send invitations.. to all the Alsatians”. 
The German shepherd is obviously favoured amongst Christendom. 

[Richard R]

3 hours ago, oldslapper said:

Back in the late 80’s I was recording with a certain WL who’s series of albums were nicknamed by the band “Make way (for my bank balance)”. If you’re under 50, this is likely lost on you….

However, the guide vocals on one song of the Christmas album, I noticed the line “send invitations.. to all the Alsatians”. 
The German shepherd is obviously favoured amongst Christendom. 

Obviously it's quite normal for rock and pop, but I have never thought of worship albums being first recorded with guide vocals.  

[oldslapper]

That album was not a “congregation live” recording. 
GK singing verses mostly solo, with b/vs coming in on chorus/harmonies. 

In my experience (again back in the day) many of the “live” CCW recordings were studio recorded, with a congregation recorded singing along to the recording after. 
 

I’ve no idea how things are done these days however 🙏

[TrevorR]

On 12/05/2022 at 07:46, xgsjx said:

Jesus Saves.

 

My fave is Resurrecting by Elevation - "Your name, Your name, is Victor Reeves".

I used to try so hard NOT  to sing “I am afraid of God, I am afraid of God, I am afraid of God, He calls me ‘Fred’!”

 

[Bobo_08]

Hey Guys, 

                    I've just moved countries and for the first time last weekend went to a new church, they do multiple services on a Sunday, there are two worship bands that I have seen and both bassists are using Jazz basis. Is this the go to bass for worship music for some reason or is it just a coincidence?

[xgsjx]

Coincidence.  In my worship team 2 of us play Ibanez, one plays aFender P, one plays a P copy & I also play a Sterling Stingray.

[dmc79]

Fender Jazz does seem a popular choice. I’ve seen more of those in the bands at big worship events than any other bass. 
 

I was thinking recently that I don’t think we’ve had much gear chat in this topic. It would be interesting to share what bass / basses we play in church, whether we play through amps or in ear monitors, if we use pedals, etc. Anyone care to share? I’ll kick things off:

 

I play a Fender USA Precision through a small Pedaltrain Nano board which is mainly just a tuner (Boss TU-3W Waza Craft) & Tech21 VTDI which goes straight to the sound desk through XLR. Everything on the pedalboard is powered by a CIOKS DC5 isolated power supply mounted underneath. The bass, pedals, power supply & board itself were all bought used. It still all cost a fair bit, but it’s quality stuff and is by far the best setup I’ve had in over 20 years of playing. For years I didn’t even have a pedal tuner, I used to tune up before practicing then plug straight into the amp! The VTDI is really nice and versatile, I used an MXR M81 preamp with DI before, it was good but very transparent, it hardly seemed to do anything at all really. VTDI gives you cab simulation, so it sounds like you’re playing through an amp even though you’re not. I now couldn’t imagine not having a cab sim on a ‘silent stage’, bass sounds so sterile without it, sometimes others play bass (not always their main instrument) and just go through a tuner to the desk and it can sound quite dull and flat. My VTDI ‘magic box’ certainly adds something special in the mix.
 

It’s a pedal you have to take your time with, as there’s some settings I tried which I really disliked (it can get very clanky / grindy / aggressive for example), or sometimes I liked a setting at home practice but then it didn’t work on a Sunday. It has a blend too so you control how much of the cab sim & your dry bass signal you want. Some people put it up to the max, but I prefer it around 50/50. It’s nice to be able to add a touch of drive on it too. Learning how the drive / character / blend knobs interact is a task in itself. You can do EQ adjustments on it too. It does a lot of great stuff and perhaps it’s only downfall is not being able to use it as a headphone amp too, as quite a few DI boxes / cab sims offer this now. 
 

At home I practice through a small Ampeg practice amp but generally with IEMs plugged into it. The amp is loud even just on volume level 1-2. I dread to think what would happen if I turned it up to 11! 

 

I’m playing around with a couple of overdrives (Darkglass Vintage Microtubes & EHX Bass Soul Food) but it’s more just for fun at home. Other than a bit of drive / extra grit here and there, I’m not one for effects. I’ve had a couple of chorus pedals, but done nothing more than play along to some Cure songs with them, get bored and then sell them. Same with a flanger. Never bothered with stuff like octavers & envelope filters (what the heck even is one of those?!) I just want to get a nice tone and to sound good in the earphones and hopefully in the room & online mix too.

 

We ditched amps / powered speakers a few years ago and use IEMs (Shure SE215) through Allen & Heath personal mixers. We have a sub speaker too. It took a while to get used to in ears, but I can’t imagine not having them now, the ability to turn instruments & vocals up and down as you choose is pretty clever. 
 

One last thing is that I’m maybe one of the last few old school worship team musicians left still holding a torch for printed music. Everyone seems to use iPads now. I prefer paper. Never owned an iPad and can’t say I ever want to! Will enjoy seeing what you all use . . . 

Edited May 13, 2022 by dmc79

[bass_dinger]

Washburn 5 string active bass, Boss cable, Boss TU2 tuner, short no-brand cable, Ashdown Electric Blue 180 Bass Amp upgraded to 220 Watts, and with the head removed to a separate unit.

 

5 on stage Behringer mini monitors on poles, PC screens for each musician and singer, sharing the chord charts (or rarely, sheet music) from a single dedicated PC running Power Music. 

 

All signals into a splitter box, to an on stage mixing desk for the stage mix, and to a second digital mixing desk for the room and with another mix for the broadcast. 

 

Oddly, my bass is not in the room mix, which is becoming a problem as the congregation get louder, and my amp can't fill the room without being too loud on stage.

 

The other bassist uses a Fender P copy.

 

[xgsjx]

My church rig for a while was Ibanez SR1000, with passive electrics, bbot bridge & d,addario Chrome faltwound strings > Korg pitchblack tuner, Boss Chorus, behringer BDDI > desk. I only used the chorus on a couple of songs, but no longer use it.

 

A few months ago I got a Sterling Sub Stingray 5. It’s strung with d’addario rounds & goes through the same signal chain. 
 

Church desk is a behringer x32 & we all use IEMs. 
 

At home, bass goes into iMac via NI audio interface & comes out through either Shure headphones or Kali LP6 monitors (no dedicated bass amp/cab used anymore). 
 

Oh, years ago I had a great pedalboard, but it never saw church. It had a homemade splitter/summer, Boss OC-3 octaver, Moog MF-101 filter, Moog MF-104b Bass Murf, PSK distortion & a Boss chorus. Sounded immense. 

Edited May 14, 2022 by xgsjx

[Richard R]

10 hours ago, TrevorR said:

I used to try so hard NOT  to sing “I am afraid of God, I am afraid of God, I am afraid of God, He calls me ‘Fred’!”

My kids hate me when I deliberately mangle songs and my version gets stuck in their heads. Now I know how they feel. Brilliant! 😂