|  | | 
02-11-2013, 05:07 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Deep East Texas Piney Woods | | | Praise music - little help needed.
I asked a question about Praise music awhile back and was amazed at the number of TB response I got. Thanks, guys. Couple more questions:
I've not found a Praise music forum, would appreciate knowing where the Praise bassists hang out. Of course other than here at TB.
Amazon normally can point me to several good books on any style, but, not having much luck with Praise. I just received what I thought was going to be a good book - which will remain nameless - and was very disappointed. What books have had value for you?
The band uses fake chord sheet music. As the chord changes come rather quickly I've been relying on root notes almost entirely. Few comments here would help.
We get the fake chord sometime before Wednesday night. I bring the fake chord home, transpose to Nashville numbers, yep, I'm a box guy, call up a video of the music and use the video as a play-a-long.
From my earlier question - I now understand how Praise music flows and can pretty well keep up with what is going on. Need a deeper understanding of my duties and comments on root on one. There just does not seem to be room for more than that.
Thanks, guys.
Appreciate your help.
Last edited by MalcolmAmos : 02-11-2013 at 05:25 AM.
|
02-11-2013, 06:05 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Cape Fear! | | My experience was often the chords on the sheets were wrong. IE something would be labeled a 7th Dom chord, but the guitards would play Maj7 etc. Key changes on the fly due to the whim of the singers. Etc. I found the most important thing was to hold the bottom together and work that 1,3,5 thing to death. Also there are usually more than one version of every popular song. Best to know them all. We were on a team that played new stuff every week from a catalog of several hundred with only 1.5 hours practice before service on Sunday. I feel your pain!  |
02-11-2013, 06:19 AM
| | | | Praise & Worship music is, IMO, a genre like anything else. My best advice is to just immerse yourself into it by playing and listening alot - it won't happen overnight, but you will soon become accustom to the flow & style. |
02-11-2013, 06:31 AM
|  | Endorsing nothing, recommending much | | Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Milton Keynes, UK | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Minus  Praise & Worship music is, IMO, a genre like anything else. My best advice is to just immerse yourself into it by playing and listening alot - it won't happen overnight, but you will soon become accustom to the flow & style. | And yet, in some ways, it's also not a genre but an application of different genres to a particular purpose. There's a pretty wide range of styles within the realm of 'praise and worship' music. Immersion is definitley the way to go, and specifically in what songs/hymns the particular church plays and how they play them.
__________________
Praise & Worship #975, 5-String #553, ACG Club, Squier Owners Club Quote:
Originally Posted by Unrepresented If we communicated with the people around us the internet would be much more boring.  | |
02-11-2013, 07:11 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Cape Fear! | | | |
02-11-2013, 07:34 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indiana | | | What are some of the songs you've been playing? |
02-11-2013, 08:16 AM
| | Endorsing nothing, recommending much | | Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Milton Keynes, UK | | Apart from age long-running thread on TB, obviously. 
__________________
Praise & Worship #975, 5-String #553, ACG Club, Squier Owners Club Quote:
Originally Posted by Unrepresented If we communicated with the people around us the internet would be much more boring. | |
02-11-2013, 08:29 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Palm Coast, FL | | Quote:
Originally Posted by funkybass What are some of the songs you've been playing? | This is the key question. It'll let us know what style of praise music your church is doing.
Chris Tomlin style is different than Jesus Culture is different than Israel Houghton is different than News Boys...
But if you've got the chord charts and a YouTube video of the version you are doing, you've got a great starting point.
You don't always have to play roots. There's lots of pretty ways to embellish your line by playing inversion as part of a moving line, or to play the root but embellish it with neighboring tones, etc...
The key is that in praise music, the lyrics are the most important thing. You don't want your playing to draw too much attention to itself while the lyrics are going on. You want to support the lyrics. You want to add to the sense of worship journey thru the use of rhythm, dynamics, harmony at key points in the song to cause the song to soar or to get pensive... You've got opportunities to really tap into your emotions and creativity on your instrument. How does one capture the majesty of the throne of God in a bass line? How does one in the next song capture a sense of bowing ones heart, knees, and life before this God? You can express all of these spiritual states and emotions thru your instrument and thru your choices. Add some vibrato, dig into the note, double up the rhythm, halve the rhythm, play a pedal tone, play a third rather than the root, use an effect, stop playing and intentionally leave a big hole for the congregation to fill during their worship, etc...
Last edited by Art Araya : 02-11-2013 at 08:34 AM.
|
02-11-2013, 08:44 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Arcadia, CA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by SoVeryTired And yet, in some ways, it's also not a genre but an application of different genres to a particular purpose. There's a pretty wide range of styles within the realm of 'praise and worship' music. Immersion is definitley the way to go, and specifically in what songs/hymns the particular church plays and how they play them. | I agree, while there may be a couple of sub genres of sacred music where you no longer hear the church styles in popular music, for most of us playing bass guitar or especially drums in church we will be adapting a secular genre and applying it to sacred music. And just as in pop music the local community dictates what is good, bad, overplaying, underplaying etc
__________________
"What good is faith if you don't use it?" Terminator Catherine Weaver, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Praise & Worship #865
|
02-11-2013, 02:57 PM
|  | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Central Ca | | This guy covers a lot of stuff you may be interested in. Simple, Tasteful and accurate. http://www.youtube.com/user/bassplay12/videos?view=0
This is a great example, A 4 chord progression that never changes and spends a lot of time on each chord. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idhoWGhHUxE
__________________
Sterling by Music Man Owners Club #45 California Bassists Club#99
Gallien Krueger Club #966
Last edited by Lowactnsatsfctn : 02-11-2013 at 03:14 PM.
|
02-11-2013, 03:47 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Palm Coast, FL | | A great resource for worship musicians is RehearsalMix.com
You can get enhanced tracks for many worship songs. They have lots of Tomlin's songs on there. You can get versions of the songs where the other instruments are mixed way down and the bass is mixed very up front. It makes it very easy to hear the actual bass line, the tone/effects the player is using, whether he's playing with a pick or his fingers, etc...
They have different MP3s for all of the instruments on a song. Each of the rehearsal mix tracks is made from the actual original mixes. They're not just EQed versions of the songs.
It's a great resource that perhaps your church will invest in. If not, you might want to purchase the bass tracks on your own for the tunes that are giving you a hard time.
Feel free to shoot me PMs. My church does several Tomlin songs. Perhaps I can help you with a specific song?
Art Quote:
Originally Posted by MalcolmAmos | |
02-11-2013, 03:50 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Palm Coast, FL | | | If you want ideas for how to approach these songs - check out YouTube. For very popular stuff like Tomlin's, you'll find the studio version, a couple of live versions, and then many churches covers of the songs. With all of these different performances of the same song you can get lots of different ideas to draw from. |
02-12-2013, 07:18 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Deep East Texas Piney Woods | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowactnsatsfctn This guy covers a lot of stuff you may be interested in. Simple, Tasteful and accurate. This is a great example, A 4 chord progression that never changes and spends a lot of time on each chord. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idhoWGhHUxE | Yes, this is what I am trying to do. Accent the lyric word, the drums lay down the beat and I accent the key word in the phrase.
It's the old, less is more. Three note phrases. Which I was trying to do with just the root.
Thanks for the video. That helped with letting me know I'm on the right track; just going about it wrong.....
Last edited by MalcolmAmos : 02-12-2013 at 07:32 AM.
|
02-12-2013, 11:37 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Dallas | | | The bass lines in the Tomlin songs are more basic with roots and a few inversions. A good deal of straight rhythm to drive the song. I think Chris and his band listened to a good deal of U2 growing up.
You can find many videos for Tomlin, Baloche, Crowder, Redman, etc on youtube. There are some similar patterns used because it works it driving the song without over powering.
Remember to listen to the whole team when playing and you will do fine. |
02-13-2013, 07:16 AM
|  | Registered User | | | | There are a bunch of Hal Leonard books that we've used at our church. The Piano bass lines will get you in the ballpark, especially with the rhythmic feel.
Here's a link to one of them: http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Praise-W...ref=pd_sim_b_2
You can probably do some searching to find out what songs are in each edition. |
02-13-2013, 07:19 AM
|  | The Funkfather
Kohlman Bassworks | | Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: SE Virginia via NYC | | | |
02-13-2013, 07:28 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Arcadia, CA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by DWBass | Judging from the OPs preferences that does not seem the genre he is playing in. However if he is in a crossover church I would make it a study site.
I would also check out their keyboard and organ room
__________________
"What good is faith if you don't use it?" Terminator Catherine Weaver, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Praise & Worship #865
|
02-13-2013, 07:47 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Waterford, MI | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Art Araya This is the key question. It'll let us know what style of praise music your church is doing.
Chris Tomlin style is different than Jesus Culture is different than Israel Houghton is different than News Boys...
But if you've got the chord charts and a YouTube video of the version you are doing, you've got a great starting point.
You don't always have to play roots. There's lots of pretty ways to embellish your line by playing inversion as part of a moving line, or to play the root but embellish it with neighboring tones, etc...
The key is that in praise music, the lyrics are the most important thing. You don't want your playing to draw too much attention to itself while the lyrics are going on. You want to support the lyrics. You want to add to the sense of worship journey thru the use of rhythm, dynamics, harmony at key points in the song to cause the song to soar or to get pensive... You've got opportunities to really tap into your emotions and creativity on your instrument. How does one capture the majesty of the throne of God in a bass line? How does one in the next song capture a sense of bowing ones heart, knees, and life before this God? You can express all of these spiritual states and emotions thru your instrument and thru your choices. Add some vibrato, dig into the note, double up the rhythm, halve the rhythm, play a pedal tone, play a third rather than the root, use an effect, stop playing and intentionally leave a big hole for the congregation to fill during their worship, etc... | All really good advice right there! In most current praise music the bass is what is sitting under everything driving the song (usually with steady 1/8 notes) and helps give the song movement. In the worship tunes (whether an actual bass, loop or pad) the bass has become a useful tool to enhance the feeling of "immersion" in the music. The big waves of bass frequencies easily spread throughout the room really making it feel like the music/moment is happen all around you instead of just in front of you. Most p&w tunes all borrow from a I-V-VI-V variation, and if you've had any interval training or play enough tunes, the melody will hint at what chords are coming up next. More open style groups like Jesus Culture often play the same progression for the entire song to allow the players the freedom to add embellishments as they are inspired. Inversions are your friend as a worship bass player because it allows you to add variety by playing different notes without changing the chord for the rest of your bandmates.
__________________
P&W Bassists Club member #1212
Last edited by carvinbassplyr : 02-13-2013 at 07:51 AM.
| | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off | | | |
