Playing in Church.

[Richard R]

3 hours ago, Big Rich said:

 

I don't bother making any constructive comments to the tech team anymore as last time I did, I got accused of bullying. 

 

 

I specified and configured the sound desk, set up all the livestream equipment, and am loosely speaking in charge of the tech.  So it's all my fault anyway 🙂
 

[bass_dinger]

6 hours ago, xgsjx said:

I know what you mean re live stream sound. Our’s is always dire . . . .

 . . . the worship pastor & most others say “Worship sounded brilliant”, so I recon I’m watching something else! 😂

 

Perhaps the issue is that you are listening to the livestream, and they are listening to the in-room sound.  

You might want to suggest that they listen to the livestream.  If they still can't hear the problem, then that's the issue.  

 

[Owen]

If you have a digital desk it might multitrack to a HD. I know the A&H stuff does, as do some of the Behringers and many others. By doing that, you can record a service and then practice mixing for a live stream. 

[bass_dinger]

A plea for a bass guitar.

A friend from another church is looking for a bass that he can buy, to give three or four eager guitarists a chance to become a church bassist.  Does anyone have something suitable?

My own church had 4 basses* at one point, but they were all given away to churches that needed a bass guitar.  


* and no other donated instruments at all.  Very odd. 

[Baxlin]

On 16/08/2021 at 15:54, bass_dinger said:

 

You might want to suggest that they listen to the livestream.  If they still can't hear the problem, then that's the issue.  

 

This is what I did, and even with headphones the sound man couldn’t hear the bass.  A point made, I felt, without upsetting anyone!

[Richard R]

3 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

A plea for a bass guitar.

A friend from another church is looking for a bass that he can buy, to give three or four eager guitarists a chance to become a church bassist.  Does anyone have something suitable?

My own church had 4 basses* at one point, but they were all given away to churches that needed a bass guitar.  


* and no other donated instruments at all.  Very odd. 

Nothing from me I'm afraid. Have you checked the marketplace here? I guess an inexpensive P would be the place to start as a general church bass. Or almost any Yamaha at all.

[Richard R]

Maybe?

[Sardonicus]

Can anybody recommend a decent bluetooth page turner that won't break the bank?  I'll be using it with a Lenovo Tab M10 as at the moment I'm using my pink-finger page turner 😁

 

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Big Rich
Bad grammar

[jrixn1]

14 minutes ago, Big Rich said:

Can anybody recommend a decent bluetooth page turner that won't break the bank?  I'll be using it with a Lenovo Tab M10 as at the moment I'm using my pink-finger page turner 😁

 

 

Happy with my Cuvave Cube Turner.  I paid £24, although the eBay seller I bought it from has since disappeared.

[Woodinblack]

I also have  Cuvave Cube turner, in fact 2 as I have one and my wife has hers. I think ours were just over a tenner from ali express.

[Richard R]

1 hour ago, Big Rich said:

Can anybody recommend a decent bluetooth page turner that won't break the bank?  I'll be using it with a Lenovo Tab M10 as at the moment I'm using my pink-finger page turner 😁

 

 

 

I made my own page turner from a 2 switch footswitch, the PCB from an old keyboard and a long USB cable. One switch page forwards, one page backwards. Works a treat

[Sardonicus]

Referring back to our many posts about poor sound in church, last Sunday our tech guy had the hump and literally threw the levels together in 30 seconds....it was the best it's ever sounded in both church and on Youtube 🤣

[xgsjx]

It’s very strange. Over the years of being in secular bands, I’d learn the songs & never take the score on stage with me. Never had an issue remembering what to play. 
 

I join the church band & everyone apart from one of the guitarists uses chords & lyrics on stage. I even used the chords on stage.

Then when we allowed to start playing again, I decided “No, learn the songs”. They’re easy & I play much better & with a lot more confidence than I did with the music stand on stage.

I’ll be trying to wean the rest of the creative team off of this nonsense.  There’s not really a need for chords & lyrics on stage, unless you have a memory issue like dementia. 😹

[LukeFRC]

37 minutes ago, xgsjx said:

I’ll be trying to wean the rest of the creative team off of this nonsense.  There’s not really a need for chords & lyrics on stage, unless you have a memory issue like dementia. 😹

Or 100 plus songs and you might not know what you will be playing, in what key untill 10 min before…

[xgsjx]

40 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Or 100 plus songs and you might not know what you will be playing, in what key untill 10 min before…

Yeah, which is crap. But if you get the worship leader (or whoever is picking songs) to send them out about a week before hand, then it’s not an issue. You’re really just learning the order of 1,4,5,6. 
2 weeks ago we had a new phil wickham song to learn. I learned it from playing along on YouTube. We play it in a different key, which I hadn’t played it in at all. I had no issues as I played the entire song on the A string instead of the E string.

I really don’t get what is with the last minute set list for church. Our church got really bad for it, so much so that some musicians gave up playing in church & then some had to raise the issue. They changed it briefly to 2 weeks before service, but it quickly went to one week before. Occasionally we’ll get a change on Saturday & I’ll learn the song if I have time, otherwise it’ll be predicting the bassline on stage. 

[Sardonicus]

@xgsjx I wish we got the songs a week before, I'm playing this Sunday in church and I know that I won't get the songs until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

[Sardonicus]

 

I found this corker on Youtube, the more I watch it, the more I love it.  I found it on iTunes and it's the best 0.79p I've ever spent 😁

[xgsjx]

1 hour ago, Big Rich said:

@xgsjx I wish we got the songs a week before, I'm playing this Sunday in church and I know that I won't get the songs until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

We were the same. It’s be Wednesday if you were lucky, but more likely Friday night with changes on Saturday. I don’t think it’s acceptable for a full set to be that late. We still occasionally change a song on the Saturday or Sunday morning before service, but that’s not fair on the band or the media guys. Sometimes they even change what the song after the service will be during the service.  

[oldslapper]

This is interesting to read. It’s been a while since being involved in church music, but it’s sad to hear the same issues still come up. 
 

I’ve experienced this both as a “band member” and as the “leader”.

 

Receiving set list 10 minutes before service starts. But also sending set list with keys and basic arrangements out fortnight beforehand and some of the musicians not looking at it until 10 minutes before the service starts. Or if they have, completely ignoring it 😂

 

I see some of the “problems” stemming from within organisations, telling worship leaders or musicians that they are the best thing since sliced bread, in an attempt to be “encouraging”. But all it does is lead people into thinking they needn’t improve.
The sort of encouragement I need is: “that’s great, but what are you doing to improve your musicianship, communication, people skills, mental and spiritual health, etc and how may we help you to do this?”

 

I tried this but it often fell on deaf ears.

[LukeFRC]

It depends on the church - in some a slick practiced performance a la Hillsongs is what they are going for - in which case having the songs beforehand is kinda a vital way of getting there.

in other churches their approach to “spirit led” might mean the set list is twenty songs and nobody knows exactly what will end up being played. So a lot of thinking on your feet.

 

ive been in both, both have positives both for learning as a player and also learning as a band.
You know what, I can turn up somewhere, get a chart (or scribble one down) and improvise a baseline on the spot… now while it would be nice to have had the songs beforehand, I’m not sure there’s many other environments where I would have learnt that. Esp in a smaller band where you end up playing a major part it changing a set of chord changes into a song… 

 

im thinking of taking @xgsjx as an example and trying to play without music - which will stretch how I think about playing 

[Richard R]

3 hours ago, Big Rich said:

 

I found this corker on Youtube, the more I watch it, the more I love it.  I found it on iTunes and it's the best 0.79p I've ever spent 😁

 

That is truly, truly, execrable!!  

 

Our youth leader landed this on us for Sunday:  https://youtu.be/PmIEiAwrKkU  "The Fruit of the Spirit's not a coconut"

 

I was on FOH Sound, but the band all moaned like anything - until they actually came to play it when they had a whale of a time. 
So much so that they spontaneously played it again after the end of the service (getting half the words wrong and causing much laughter):   https://youtu.be/chE0N8fxk-4?t=3165

 

 

 

 

[LukeFRC]

1 hour ago, Richard R said:

 

That is truly, truly, execrable!!  

 

Our youth leader landed this on us for Sunday:  https://youtu.be/PmIEiAwrKkU  "The Fruit of the Spirit's not a coconut"

 

I was on FOH Sound, but the band all moaned like anything - until they actually came to play it when they had a whale of a time. 
So much so that they spontaneously played it again after the end of the service (getting half the words wrong and causing much laughter):   https://youtu.be/chE0N8fxk-4?t=3165

 

 

 

 

I will probably never be able to get that out of my head!!

[Richard R]

25 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

I will probably never be able to get that out of my head!!

Which one? 

[LukeFRC]

13 minutes ago, Richard R said:

Which one? 

Coconut

[Richard R]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

Coconut

 

I apologise.