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Playing in Church.


Sardonicus

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5 hours ago, TrevorR said:
Our indie-rock version of Chris Tomlin's "Set Free (Joy, Joy)" but with a Valentine's twist at the end. The song starts dead on at 5 minutes in. The sound of my Pro Series Wal bass comes through really nicely on the mix. So glad that our pastors and worship team appreciate the role that bass can play in a mix and driving a song and aren't scared of it!!! Hope you like it.
 

Great stuff Trevor, enjoyed that! Very good mix as you say. And a bonus point for dual 'TrevCam' ;)

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More seriously great to see there are so many fellow church bassists on here!

I am blessed to be in a church with so many great musicians (I'll often be the least talented on stage by a country mile!), especially one particular drummer, a keys player who is a member of a prog rock supergroup, numerous music teachers, an awesome guitarist and a number of great singers. Despite this, it's never about the 'performance'. Missing playing with them in lockdown more than anything else.

I am less blessed that our church building is sonically as flat as a pancake, meeting as we do in an old office block. Our sound team do a great job given that limitations, and at the end of the day it is the worshipful quality that counts.

I try and keep things simple for them by going straight to PA and letting them do what they want with levels. Although there was a terrifying time when they insisted on mixing the drums and bass really high in the mix to create an 'atmospheric boom', and putting a synthetic octaver on from the desk without telling me! I think that's been nipped in the bud...

Edited by joseb84
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1 hour ago, joseb84 said:

Solihull (Jubilee Church)

Just up the road from me. I'm at Shirley Baptist, and there are a few people with links to both churches.  I am very definitely the least talented musician when I'm on the stage.  But I do consider I'm a pretty good FOH engineer 😉

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8 minutes ago, Richard R said:

Just up the road from me. I'm at Shirley Baptist, and there are a few people with links to both churches.  I am very definitely the least talented musician when I'm on the stage.  But I do consider I'm a pretty good FOH engineer 😉

Ah great, I live super close to Shirley Baptist and my kids really enjoyed your virtual holiday club this week! 

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7 hours ago, joseb84 said:

a keys player who is a member of a prog rock supergroup,

Funny thing, for many, many years I played with the keyboard player from the prog metal band, Threshold, at our church! What’s it about prog keyboard players? ;)

Edited by TrevorR
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I haven't been in our church building for a year because of Covid and my advancing years!  I have recorded bass parts at home, on my mobile 'phone, and they have been stitched together with other band members  to make an on-line service.  Our church is now open again but with limited numbers and a skeleton band.  In house congregation is not allowed to sing but the service is streamed live on Youtube for those who cannot attend in person.  Having had my Covid vaccination and being totally fed up at not being able to get to church, I shall be back playing this coming Sunday.  We will only be doing two songs but it will be great to get back into the swing of things.

I have neglected the bass for most of the year because there was nothing to rehearse for.

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1 hour ago, LeftyP said:

I haven't been in our church building for a year because of Covid and my advancing years!  I have recorded bass parts at home, on my mobile 'phone, and they have been stitched together with other band members  to make an on-line service.  Our church is now open again but with limited numbers and a skeleton band.  In house congregation is not allowed to sing but the service is streamed live on Youtube for those who cannot attend in person.  Having had my Covid vaccination and being totally fed up at not being able to get to church, I shall be back playing this coming Sunday.  We will only be doing two songs but it will be great to get back into the swing of things.

I have neglected the bass for most of the year because there was nothing to rehearse for.

Very similar situation for us. We've done a few of those "record on your iPhone and stitch them together" tunes too. My wife adn I are both due to get our jabs tomorrow an dit will be so goods to be able to get back into church some time in the foreseeable!

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I’m recording 9 songs with a stripped down church band on 1st March. Just got the set list today. 3 of the songs I don’t know.

It’d be nice to get the songs a bit earlier so I can actually learn them & not wing it along with a chord chart, but this seems to be the norm with church worship leaders.  😶

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2 hours ago, xgsjx said:

I’m recording 9 songs with a stripped down church band on 1st March. Just got the set list today. 3 of the songs I don’t know.

It’d be nice to get the songs a bit earlier so I can actually learn them & not wing it along with a chord chart, but this seems to be the norm with church worship leaders.  😶

Haha..  we only have one new song this Sunday, hopefully I can at least find a chord chart, fortunately there are YouTube performances on line.

This will be the first time I’ve been in a band with this Sunday’s worship leader, so that’s another unknown.

Our Church has recently employed a new worship leader, to start on 1st March,  so I expect more new songs before long!

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3 hours ago, xgsjx said:

I’m recording 9 songs with a stripped down church band on 1st March. Just got the set list today. 3 of the songs I don’t know.

It’d be nice to get the songs a bit earlier so I can actually learn them & not wing it along with a chord chart, but this seems to be the norm with church worship leaders.  😶

You’ve got three songs to learn in 6 days? Normally I get given a chord charts (in the wrong key) for 3 new song I’ve never heard about an hour before it’s due to play it!! 

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1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

You’ve got three songs to learn in 6 days? Normally I get given a chord charts (in the wrong key) for 3 new song I’ve never heard about an hour before it’s due to play it!! 

That’s happened before. 
I got the chord charts, which are always in a different key from the originals & likely to change on the day.

The saving grace is every worship song we do uses a version of 1, 4, 5, 6. So I’ll probably play some U2 bass lines. 

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1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

You’ve got three songs to learn in 6 days? Normally I get given a chord charts (in the wrong key) for 3 new song I’ve never heard about an hour before it’s due to play it!! 

We use OnSongs, which make it easy to change key.  Last Sunday we tried one of the songs in 3 different keys before we found the one the WL was happy with....

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56 minutes ago, Baxlin said:

We use OnSongs, which make it easy to change key.  Last Sunday we tried one of the songs in 3 different keys before we found the one the WL was happy with....

A couple of the musicians in our church use onsongs. It looks like it could be useful. I usually just Chuck the tracks in Logic & use a pitch changer

I still don’t get why every song has to be in a different key from the original, even the ones that are sung by females (it’s all female worship leaders in our church)?

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1 hour ago, Baxlin said:

We use OnSongs, which make it easy to change key.  Last Sunday we tried one of the songs in 3 different keys before we found the one the WL was happy with....

OnSong is great once you’ve got the tunes in the transposable format. So easy to swap key (or pop a capo on if you’re a 6 stringer,or go Nashville if that’s your bag). Literally 2 seconds to change them. I compile all our team sheets and have them all in OnSong format. Love that programme! Sorry, “App” - showing my age!

Bish...

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Bash...

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Bosh!

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Edited by TrevorR
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That' a good tool Trevor, looks better than Music Stand where only the Worship Leader can transpose (at least on my version).

Option 3 on OnSong (showing the scale degrees) has saved my bacon a few times, when either the key has been changed following 3 rehearsals in the original key, or a lead instrumentalist has simply started in the wrong key! 

Which is also the reason I favour a 5 string for church, as I find it easier for rapid transposition.

Edited by Kevsy71
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On song is good. Not so good when I'm the only one with it and have to make all my own chord charts! 

Thing is we use Open song for the presentation and words (it's awful btw) and the open song format can have chords and read natively by on song. I don't think I'll get wholesale move accross though 

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