questions for those who play in praise and worship bands

[derekd]

I am a guitar player also, and frankly never use capos even when others do. For me, unless you need a bunch of open strings ringing, I prefer to have a larger chord vocabularly so I can play any tune anywhere on the neck.

So as a bassist, capos have zero impact on what I do. If the tune is upbeat, then you play what you feel comfortable playing while being able to keep the groove. Pretty easy to overplay on uptempo stuff, when more of a focus on groove would be better.

I like 5's, but currently use a 4. As others have posted, can always drop to D if lower range is needed.

[manutabora]

I don't know how far along your musical development you are, but I'd say you should NOT be playing off of what the guitar player's left hand looks like. Half the time guitar players don't even know what they are doing, they just play shapes. So if you only play by watching what they are doing (which they don't even know themselves) you are pretty much clueless.
Not trying to diss you or anything, but if that is how you're actually doing it you may need to learn a few things about theory. It will help you.

[jaywa]

Originally Posted by Ben B

No. I don't watch the guitarist player. A few times years ago, I didn't have music and had to watch the guitar chords when a capo was used. At the time, I could transpose pretty well and didn't miss too many notes. I didn't enjoy the challenge, and I hope I never have to do that again.

You think that's bad? Try doing a song where the guitarist (who plays "by ear", no music or charts of any kind), starts the song a half-step off from the music everyone else is looking at! He's playing in G#, the piano and acoustic guitar are playing in G (cause they're these "by the book" players that play what is written and only what's written), and I'm trying to figure out what to do and the singers are looking at each other like, "we are so screwed". I've played bass for 28 years and worship music for the past 12 or so, and those "easy church gigs" have been some of the hairyest, "live without a net" things I've ever done!

[MarkMcCombs]

guess I'm lucky, all the musicians I play with know their theory. In fact, most of the guitarists I've played with, everywhere, are pretty studied as far as theory goes. Hate to admit it, but sometimes I'm the weak link, and I feel my knowledge is pretty decent.

I have no problems with people using capos. They make perfect sense in that, especially with acoustic guitar, but even with electric, they allow a more clear and ringing tone than barre chords often do.

I play a 5 - it gives more options as to where on the neck to play, and the lower D and C are pretty useful at times.

Originally Posted by manutabora

I don't know how far along your musical development you are, but I'd say you should NOT be playing off of what the guitar player's left hand looks like. Half the time guitar players don't even know what they are doing, they just play shapes. So if you only play by watching what they are doing (which they don't even know themselves) you are pretty much clueless.
Not trying to diss you or anything, but if that is how you're actually doing it you may need to learn a few things about theory. It will help you.

[9mmMike]

We change keys almost every Sunday AM. It depends on who is singing and what their range is. There are capo's all over the place. I am learning to just move up or down the board to play. I lie to my fingers and tell them we're in G when we're actually in A (shhh don't say anything!) As far as rapid changes go, if you play a bunch of hymns, they change chords practically every word. I am happy if I can just keep up! Luckily for me we do not play hymns very often.