Richard R Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 It's in 5/4, not alternating 6/4 and 4/4, except for a few bars of 3/4 in the turn round. If you have a CCLI subscription then download the lead lines rather than the chord sheet, as it has proper sheet music a dots. It's actually pretty easy to play. It's a reflecive song so you're not trying to groove, you can put the bass notes on the stressed syllables of the lyric and just go by feel - don't get hung up on counting. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie C Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 10 minutes ago, Richard R said: It's in 5/4, not alternating 6/4 and 4/4, except for a few bars of 3/4 in the turn round. If you have a CCLI subscription then download the lead lines rather than the chord sheet, as it has proper sheet music a dots. It's actually pretty easy to play. It's a reflecive song so you're not trying to groove, you can put the bass notes on the stressed syllables of the lyric and just go by feel - don't get hung up on counting. Thanks Richard! That makes a lot more sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_dinger Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 2 hours ago, Rosie C said: I'm playing at Easter Sunday morning service and looking forward to it. Looking through the hymns, we're doing "How Deep the Father's Love For Us". A little bit scary with its alternating 6/4 and 4/4 bars. Does anyone have experience of playing it? Yes. When I first learned it, I was not aware of the alternating time signatures (although I realised that the timing was peculiar, about the same time that I spotted that the words didn't rhyme!). I play on the chord changes rather than try to create a rhythm, and let the vocalists and congregation carry the song. I can try to create a recording of what I do, if you are desperate.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 How deep is at 1hr 30min 29s. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie C Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 1 hour ago, bass_dinger said: When I first learned it, I was not aware of the alternating time signatures (although I realised that the timing was peculiar, about the same time that I spotted that the words didn't rhyme!). I play on the chord changes rather than try to create a rhythm, and let the vocalists and congregation carry the song. Thanks! That's really useful - enough for me to do something, along with Richard's video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nilebodgers Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 (edited) 5 hours ago, Rosie C said: I'm playing at Easter Sunday morning service and looking forward to it. Looking through the hymns, we're doing "How Deep the Father's Love For Us". A little bit scary with its alternating 6/4 and 4/4 bars. Does anyone have experience of playing it? If you mean this one: I played this a while back and I don’t remember any trouble with time sigs. (I always have the music though, never just chord charts) Edited March 29 by nilebodgers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie C Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 50 minutes ago, nilebodgers said: I played this a while back and I don’t remember any trouble with time sigs. (I always have the music though, never just chord charts) I think I just had a bad arrangement - I've a better one now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_dinger Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 (edited) @Rosie CThis YouTube video is a very typical version of this song - no strong rhythm, and the bass line playing on the chord changes. And here is me playing over it, using the written music. how_deep2.wav Edited March 30 by bass_dinger 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie C Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 1 hour ago, bass_dinger said: @Rosie CThis YouTube video is a very typical version of this song - no strong rhythm, and the bass line playing on the chord changes. And here is me playing over it, using the written music. how_deep2.wav 8.98 MB · 27 downloads Thanks! I think "playing on the chord changes" is going to be the key. The music I have to work with tends to be either piano/organ music where I work from the bottom line, or 4-part choral music where I play the bass part. It usually works fine, but not for this one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_dinger Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 How Deep ( and my finger, too...) in 6 4 4 4 Is there a name for alternating bars that flip between two time signatures? I am told that Bernstein's America does the same, between 3/4 and 6/8. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodShowSir Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 4 hours ago, bass_dinger said: Is there a name for alternating bars that flip between two time signatures? I am told that Bernstein's America does the same, between 3/4 and 6/8. I seem to remember... and a quick search to confirm... you got it, its called an alternating time signature! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) 5/4, with a couple of bars of 3/4! Either way, it's easiest to play if you don't bother counting! Edited March 31 by Richard R Typo... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie C Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 1 hour ago, Richard R said: 5/4, with a couple of bars of 3/4! Either way, it's easiest to play if you don't bother counting! Happy Easter! Yes, I worked on it yesterday and it is easier to forget about counting and just focus on the chord changes. Either way, too late now - rehearsal at 10am and service at 11am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nilebodgers Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 16 hours ago, Rosie C said: Thanks! I think "playing on the chord changes" is going to be the key. The music I have to work with tends to be either piano/organ music where I work from the bottom line, or 4-part choral music where I play the bass part. It usually works fine, but not for this one! Everything I see is piano scores where the written bass part doesn’t sound good on bass guitar. I pretty much always play the chord changes with my own ideas for rhythms and inversions added in. I usually get away with busking it 😉 I don’t think I’ve ever heard a worship song that has a “signature” bass line that would be needed for the song to sound “right”. Not for congregational singing anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonK Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Happy Easter - long old service this morning but twelve pedals on the floor which was great until I plugged my acoustic guitar into the wrong board right as communion started which made the whole church jump! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie C Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 3 hours ago, nilebodgers said: Everything I see is piano scores where the written bass part doesn’t sound good on bass guitar. I pretty much always play the chord changes with my own ideas for rhythms and inversions added in. I usually get away with busking it 😉 Our main hymn book has guitar chords underneath the piano score, but then a sneaky tick/cross symbol to show whether the chords match the piano - mostly it seem they don't, so as you say you have to busk it. We used to meet on Friday evenings for a proper rehearsal then a pint & a meal, but that sort of stopped, so now it's a quick 30 minutes before the service. Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped with "How Deep the Father's Love For Us" - depsite my worrying over it, all went well! I was going to take double bass but I don't play it as much as I'd like and there were a few too many G# and C# notes to catch me out. So I took my jazz bass guitar which worked well - particularly when our first song was "He Has Risen" with its 1980s style 8-note bass line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTB Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 6 hours ago, nilebodgers said: I don’t think I’ve ever heard a worship song that has a “signature” bass line that would be needed for the song to sound “right”. Not for congregational singing anyway. Here’s one - it even starts on the “signature “ bass line. I played it a few times back in the day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTB Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 And here’s another one with a signature line that’s also the intro😃. This time double stops. I played this loads 10 years ago, it was very popular for a season. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonK Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) If we are doing Christian songs with signature bass lines we must remember this one (need headphones - I've linked to just the right place!): Edited March 31 by SimonK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_dinger Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 9 hours ago, nilebodgers said: I don’t think I’ve ever heard a worship song that has a “signature” bass line that would be needed for the song to sound “right”. Not for congregational singing anyway. You are right - even the songs with a distinct bass riff don't _need_ it for the congregation to be able to sing it. However, there is this song... And this Each have distinct riffs that are beyond me! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonK Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) ...this is fun - some great trips down memory lane! We did "My Redeemer Lives" last week but the bass riff isn't too hard, just a bit of chromatic walking around the normal 1-V-octave pentatonic box - great fun - unlike mourning into dancing which I haven't played for years and now need to work out again! ...edit... ten minutes later and I've more or less got it but the last six or seven notes are syncopated which is tricky - not sure I would get it right at full speed every time! Edited March 31 by SimonK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Here's the story of the last week: We are blessed with a large church which is lively and growing, worship bands who care, and a tech team who know their stuff, test and prepare thoroughly. You know where this is going... 😄 Up on Tuesday to run some tests on livestream & sound, and prep for Maunday Thursday - all good. Maunday Thursday- no sound from the desk main outputs at all, just crackles. 🤔 Fortunately it was a Taize-style service, mainly a capella. 👍 Testing after the service confirmed the final DACs on the desk are dead. (A&H Qu32). ☹️ Up on Good Friday to figure out the work-round. Eveything works! Which means we have an intermittent fault, which is worse.😠 Test everything else in the meantime and thankfully the main DACs fail again! We have a digital stage-box, so we decide to route the LR over the digital link to two outputs there, use the DACs there to covert to analogue then run back to the amps over the old analogue lines. Happy days! 😀 This morning the VDP computer which handles Easy Worship, playing videos and also the baptim- only camera, decides that it will crash as soon as we try to play a video through EW. 🙄 Phone call to another of the team who has EW on his laptop so he brings that over. A few minutes configuring that as a backup, finish just in time for the service and off we go! 20 mins in, first video plays, main PC crashes as expected but flipping to the backup works. Reboot the main PC while that video is on, and we're back in time for the baptisms. 🥳 Today was one of The Best Services Ever! Almost 2 hours, with four baptisms, great testimonies, fantastic singing and superb playing (not me). And no amount of glitches, technical problems, random stuff or gremlins was going to stop it. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon C Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) On 27/03/2024 at 19:17, bass_dinger said: Sadly, people take that to extremes, and turn up with no preparation at all, or without having sung through the songs, or even looked at the song list. Usually that's the singers, but I once had a bassist turn up without their bass.... Agreed! It's not a gig, it's an opportunity to serve others. Why do people treat it like they're doing the congregation a favour by tuning up on the day? Get excited people - it's important. For a while I was treating the service I play at as an unpaid gig. The reason was that a section of the congregation had dulled the service down to the point that there was no joy in the service and no excitement. We became so scarce on musician resources that if I and 2 or 3 others had bailed at that point we wouldn’t have had a band. I felt the right thing to do was to stay and work with the leadership to 1st stabilise the service, then get the joy back in it. For a year or so I was in the unpaid gig mindset - it’s not a good place to be, but that’s where I was. The alternative was leaving, which I didn’t want to do as I’m a “stay and make thing better” type rather than a “I’m leaving because you’ve made it dull” type. We’ve now got the service back to a point where the congregation are engaging with worship, and musicians and decent soundtechs are coming back. I’m actually excited about playing next Sunday. So yup, I agree with what the 2 of you have written, and I’m glad I’m not in the unpaid gig mindset anymore. But sometimes there might be a reason why people are (hopefully temporarily) in that place. (Hopefully this makes some sort of sense). Edited March 31 by Simon C 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonK Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 Unpaid gig mindset - playing in churches can be a funny thing. I grew up in a super-charismatic/pentacostal setting and even went full time playing bass with a worship band for a couple of years after leaving school (before realising that University was a better life-option!). Problem is that when you get used to playing in a semi-pro church music setting it makes it much harder when you subsequently (due to work & family) move to a much smaller church with all the challenges of random instrumentation, dodgy equipment and no training. So I pretty much stopped playing in church for about fifteen years, focusing on an originals/covers band in the meantime. Then my church got a new vicar who is a really talented mult-instrumentalist, as are his two teenage children, and now we have a band that is fun again - two or three other musicians including myself have since re-emerged so we now can manage a couple different band combinations. I've often mused as to whether I "should" have taken a fifteen year haitus from church music due, essentially, to the band being crap and it not being fun to play in that setting anymore... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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